H. R. 583 
One Hundred Sixteenth Congress 
of the 
United States of America 
AT THE SECOND SESSION 
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday, 
the third day of January, two thousand and twenty 
An Act 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for enhanced penalties for 
pirate radio, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse 
Through Enforcement Act’’ or the ‘‘PIRATE Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PIRATE RADIO ENFORCEMENT ENHANCEMENTS. 
Title V of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 501 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 511. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING; 
ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS; REPORTING. 
‘‘(a) INCREASED GENERAL PENALTY.—Any person who willfully 
and knowingly does or causes or suffers to be done any pirate 
radio broadcasting shall be subject to a fine of not more than 
$2,000,000. 
‘‘(b) VIOLATION OF THIS ACT, RULES, OR REGULATIONS.—Any 
person who willfully and knowingly violates this Act or any rule, 
regulation, restriction, or condition made or imposed by the Commis-
sion under authority of this Act, or any rule, regulation, restriction, 
or condition made or imposed by any international radio or wire 
communications treaty or convention, or regulations annexed 
thereto, to which the United States is party, relating to pirate 
radio broadcasting shall, in addition to any other penalties provided 
by law, be subject to a fine of not more than $100,000 for each 
day during which such offense occurs, in accordance with the limit 
described in subsection (a). 
‘‘(c) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 
of enactment of the PIRATE Act, and annually thereafter, the 
Commission shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Com-
merce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Com-
merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report summa-
rizing the implementation of this section and associated enforcement 
activities for the previous fiscal year, which may include the efforts 
by the Commission to enlist the cooperation of Federal, State, 
and local law enforcement personnel (including United States attor-
neys and the United States Marshals Service) for service of process, 
collection of fines or forfeitures, seizures of equipment, and enforce-
ment of orders. 
‘‘(d) ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS.—
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‘‘(1) ANNUAL SWEEPS.—Not less than once each year, the 
Commission shall assign appropriate enforcement personnel 
to focus specific and sustained attention on the elimination 
of pirate radio broadcasting within the top 5 radio markets 
identified as prevalent for such broadcasts. Such effort shall 
include identifying, locating, and taking enforcement actions 
designed to terminate such operations. 
‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL MONITORING.—Within 6 months after con-
ducting the enforcement sweeps required by paragraph (1), 
the Commission shall conduct monitoring sweeps to ascertain 
whether the pirate radio broadcasting identified by enforcement 
sweeps is continuing to broadcast and whether additional pirate 
radio broadcasting is occurring. 
‘‘(3) NO EFFECT ON REMAINING ENFORCEMENT.—Notwith-
standing paragraph (1), the Commission shall not decrease 
or diminish the regular enforcement efforts targeted to pirate 
radio broadcast stations for other times of the year. 
‘‘(e) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY.—The Commis-
sion may not preempt any State or local law prohibiting pirate 
radio broadcasting. 
‘‘(f) REVISION OF COMMISSION RULES REQUIRED.—The Commis-
sion shall revise its rules to require that, absent good cause, in 
any case alleging a violation of subsection (a) or (b), the Commission 
shall proceed directly to issue a notice of apparent liability without 
first issuing a notice of unlicensed operation. 
‘‘(g) PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING DATABASE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the date 
of the enactment of this section, and semi-annually thereafter, 
the Commission shall publish a database in a clear and legible 
format of all licensed radio stations operating in the AM and 
FM bands. The database shall be easily accessible from the 
Commission home page through a direct link. The database 
shall include the following information: 
‘‘(A) Each licensed station, listed by the assigned fre-
quency, channel number, or Commission call letters. 
‘‘(B) All entities that have received a notice of 
unlicensed operation, notice of apparent liability, or for-
feiture order issued by the Commission. 
‘‘(2) CLEAR IDENTIFICATION.—The Commission shall clearly 
identify in the database— 
‘‘(A) each licensed station as a station licensed by the 
Commission; and 
‘‘(B) each entity described in paragraph (1)(B) as oper-
ating without a Commission license or authorization. 
‘‘(h) DEFINITION OF PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING.—In this sec-
tion, the term ‘pirate radio broadcasting’ means the transmission 
of communications on spectrum frequencies between 535 and 1705 
kilohertz, inclusive, or 87.7 and 108 megahertz, inclusive, without 
a license issued by the Commission, but does not include unlicensed
H. R. 583—3 
operations in compliance with part 15 of title 47, Code of Federal 
Regulations.’’. 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.