U.S. House Unanimously Passes the PIRATE Act

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, July 24, 2018

U.S. Congress

The PIRATE Act (H.R. 5709) has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It now awaits a vote from the Senate. 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.

In a statement, NAB Executive VP/Communications Dennis Wharton said, "NAB applauds the House of Representatives for unanimously passing the PIRATE Act, which provides the FCC with tough new enforcement measures to combat illegal pirate radio operations. These unlicensed and illegal stations interfere with licensed radio broadcasts, threaten public safety and disrupt communications between airline pilots and air traffic controllers. We thank Reps. Lance, Tonko and Collins for their leadership on pirate radio enforcement and urge the Senate to act quickly in passing the PIRATE Act."