Blackburn Introduces Legislation to Address Onerous FCC Requirements

WASHINGTON, DC – Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) today introduced H.R.__, a bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke certain changes to the ownership reporting requirements for noncommercial educational broadcast stations.

The FCC last year voted to overhaul their ownership requirements to improve minority ownership of broadcast stations. While most of the changes were reasonable, the FCC imposed unnecessary and burdensome ownership rules on non-commercial educational (NCEs) broadcasters. Under these reporting requirements NCEs are required to include their board members as owners, raising privacy concerns, among other things. This legislation would repeal the new reporting requirements for NCE board members but will continue to require NCEs to report basic ownership information.

“Public broadcasters from across the country have expressed their reasonable privacy concerns with these onerous FCC requirements,” said Chairman Blackburn. “This commonsense bill would remove a useless barrier that would prevent qualified and dedicated people from serving as board members to these vital local broadcast stations.”

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