Enhancing DIVERSITY Data Act

Bill: 117-hr-5836
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9]
Introduced: 2021-11-03
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications
Latest action: action_date: 2021-11-04
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-11-03
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>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</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p>

tv_txt: I 117th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 5836 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.

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 . 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. 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.