Orphan County Telecommunications Rights Act of 2014
Latest action · Jul 21, 2014 Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedMay 9, 2014
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Orphan County Telecommunications Rights Act of 2014 - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to permit an adjacent underserved county of a television broadcast station to file a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be included in the local market of such station.
Defines "adjacent underserved county" as a county within a television broadcast station's adjacent market that is: (1) located in the same state as the station's community of license, and (2) not within the local market of any other station that is affiliated with the same television network and located in the same state.
Defines "adjacent market" as any designated market area adjacent to, and partially but not entirely in the same state as, the designated market area in which the station's community of license is located. Requires a county that is not within the local or adjacent market of any network station licensed to a community in the county's state to be considered within the adjacent market of any station licensed to a community in the nearest designated market area: (1) that is located in whole or in part within such state, and (2) with respect to which the community of license of at least one network station is located both in such designated market area and in such state.
Allows the FCC to determine that a particular county is part of the local market of more than one television broadcast station affiliated with the same television network.
Prohibits a multichannel video programming distributor, during the pendency of a proceeding on a county's petition for inclusion in the local market of a television broadcast station, from deleting the signal of a station that: (1) is affiliated with the same television network, and (2) has a local market that includes such county.
Directs the FCC, if the local market of a television broadcast station is modified to include a petitioning county, to include within the television market of such station all of the communities within such county for purposes of carriage obligation requirements under which cable operators carry the signals of local commercial television stations. Requires the FCC's modification of a station's local market under this Act to also result in a modification of such marketfor purposes of statutory licensing requirements that apply to secondary transmissions of local television programming by satellite.
Cosponsors 5
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from May 21, 2014 to Jun 18, 2014.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-NE | Adrian Smith | May 21, 2014 | |
| R-OK | Markwayne Mullin | May 21, 2014 | |
| D-NC | Mike McIntyre | May 21, 2014 | |
| D-MD | John K. Delaney | Jun 10, 2014 | |
| R-VA | Robert Hurt | Jun 18, 2014 |
Committees 2
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Energy and Commerce Committee | Referred May 9, 2014 |
| Communications and Technology Subcommittee | Referred May 16, 2014 | |
| House | Judiciary Committee | Referred May 9, 2014 |
| Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet Subcommittee | Referred Jul 21, 2014 |
Actions 4
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jul 21, 2014Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.
- May 16, 2014Referred to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
- May 9, 2014Introduced in House
- May 9, 2014Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Constitutional authority
The sponsor’s statement, as printed in the page H4060.
CRS reports 1
Congressional Research Service work that CRS links to this bill or the law it became, newest first.
Cite it 1
Products on other subjects that cite it, usually among other measures.
| Product | Title | Kind | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| R43490 | Reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) Archived | Report | Dec 22, 2014 |
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for greater access to in-State television broadcast programming, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Orphan County Telecommunications Rights Act of 2014
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- May 9, 2014Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
