Title: Enhancing DIVERSITY Data Act
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion by Verifying and Ensuring the Reporting required by Statute Is Transpiring and Yielding Data Act or the Enhancing DIVERSITY Data Act
This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to carry out rulemaking, data collection, and reporting about the demographic composition of the broadcast industry workforce.
Specifically, the FCC must complete a specified rulemaking process related to equal employment opportunity rules and policies that apply to broadcast stations and multichannel video programming distributors (e.g., cable operators). Part of this rulemaking addresses reporting of workforce demographics by broadcast license holders.
Within one year of completing the rulemaking, the FCC must begin collecting demographic data pertaining to the broadcast industry workforce. The FCC may not use the collected data in its reviews of broadcast license applications or renewals or to assess compliance with applicable equal employment opportunity rules.
Further, the FCC must (1) include analyses of the demographic composition of the broadcast industry workforce in certain reports, and (2) maintain a database that includes publicly available ownership data of broadcast licensees.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5836 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5836

    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for certain 
requirements with respect to media employment, ownership, and diversity 
                   reporting, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 3, 2021

    Ms. Clarke of New York introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for certain 
requirements with respect to media employment, ownership, and diversity 
                   reporting, 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 ``Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion by 
Verifying and Ensuring the Reporting required by Statute Is Transpiring 
and Yielding Data Act'' or the ``Enhancing DIVERSITY Data Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Recognizing the long history of exclusion of women and 
        people of color from media resources in the United States, 
        promoting diversity, localism, and inclusion in the broadcast 
        and multichannel video programming distributor industries is a 
        compelling government interest.
            (2) The Federal Communications Commission has the statutory 
        obligation and authority to require employment reports for all 
        broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors.

SEC. 3. MEDIA EMPLOYMENT, OWNERSHIP, AND DIVERSITY REPORTING.

    (a) Requirements.--
            (1) Employment data.--
                    (A) Completion of rulemaking proceeding regarding 
                public access.--Not later than 18 months after the date 
                of the enactment of this Act, the Commission, after 
                additional notice and opportunity for comment, shall 
                complete the rulemaking proceeding in the Fourth Notice 
                of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 04-103) in the matter of 
                Review of the Commission's Broadcast and Cable Equal 
                Employment Opportunity Rules and Policies (MM Docket 
                No. 98-204).
                    (B) Deadline to begin collection.--Not later than 1 
                year after the completion of the rulemaking proceeding 
                described in subparagraph (A), the Commission shall 
                begin collecting employment data using FCC Form 395-A 
                and FCC Form 395-B (or any successor forms).
                    (C) Prohibitions.--The Commission may not use 
                employment data collected using FCC Form 395-A or FCC 
                Form 395-B (or any successor forms)--
                            (i) to review broadcast license 
                        applications or broadcast license renewal 
                        applications; or
                            (ii) to assess compliance with the equal 
                        employment opportunity rules of the Commission.
                    (D) Inclusion of analysis of employment data in 
                communications marketplace report.--Section 13(d)(3) of 
                the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 163(d)(3)) is 
                amended by inserting before the period at the end the 
                following: ``and include in the report required by 
                subsection (a) an analysis of the employment data 
                collected using FCC Form 395-A and FCC Form 395-B (or 
                any successor forms), as such data relates to such 
                barriers and such national policy''.
            (2) Ownership database.--
                    (A) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the 
                date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
                create a database that contains the ownership data of 
                television broadcast station licensees to the extent 
                such data is otherwise collected, and made public, by 
                the Commission.
                    (B) Requirements.--The database required by 
                subparagraph (A) shall be accessible on the website of 
                the Commission, searchable by the public, and capable 
                of being used to produce reports identifying any or all 
                of the following:
                            (i) Ownership data with respect to any 
                        licensee.
                            (ii) Ownership interests of any licensee.
                            (iii) Industry-wide statistics.
                            (iv) Statistics for particular geographic 
                        regions.
                            (v) Statistics for particular licensee 
                        classifications.
    (b) Commission Defined.--In this section, the term ``Commission'' 
means the Federal Communications Commission.
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