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Protecting Community Television Act
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to modify the definition of franchise fee, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to modify the definition of "franchise fee" under cable television franchise provisions. The bill changes the regulatory language from "includes" to "means" in the definition, narrowing the scope to an exhaustive rather than illustrative list. The bill also adds "other monetary" before "assessment" to expand what types of monetary assessments qualify as franchise fees.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
19 cosponsors
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (D-WI)
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME] (I-ME)
- Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
- Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] (I-VT)
- Sen. Schatz, Brian [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH] (D-NH)
- Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
- Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] (D-OR)
Actions (2)
- Jun 9, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. · senate
- Jun 9, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 9, 2025
Mr. Markey (for himself, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Hirono, Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schatz, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Smith, Ms. Warren, Mr. Welch, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Booker, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Van Hollen, and Mr. Padilla) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to modify the definition of franchise fee, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Community Television Act”.
SEC. 2. MODIFYING THE DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE FEE.
Section 622(g)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 542(g)(1)) is amended—
(1) by striking “includes” and inserting “means”; and
(2) by inserting “other monetary” before “assessment”. <all>
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