The PIRATE Act Passes Boosting Fines to $2 Million

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, June 13, 2018 | 12:35pm CT

U.S. Congress

The PIRATE Act (H.R. 5709) has been passed by the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Under the Act, any person operating a pirate radio station will be subject to a fine of not more than $100,000 per day of operations and not more than $2 million in total. Plus, the FCC will be required to assign appropriate enforcement personal to focus specific and sustained attention on the elimination of pirate radio broadcasting within the top five radio markets not less than twice each year.

NAB Executive VP/Communications Dennis Wharton said in a statement, "NAB strongly supports legislation passed unanimously today in the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology that provides the FCC additional tools to address illegal pirate radio operations.

"Pirate radio not only interferes with signals of legal radio broadcasts. On multiple occasions, the FCC has documented that illegal pirate broadcasts have interfered with communications between airline pilots and air traffic controllers. We salute Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Mike Tonko (D-NY) for their bipartisan sponsorship of this important legislation."