Broadcast VOICES Act
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill creates congressional findings on broadcast ownership diversity: FCC mission to ensure diversity, data showing women own only 5% of TV stations and minorities own less than 4%, and the 287 radio and 40 TV certificates, requires FCC biennial reporting requirements: recommendations on increasing number and value of broadcast stations owned by socially disadvantaged individuals, plus data report on total stations owned by disadvantaged, and requires tax certificate program for broadcast station sales furthering ownership by socially disadvantaged individuals, with FCC rulemaking within 1 year, 6-year report on program expansion, and examination of nexus. It relies on reporting requirements, exemptions, tax credits, and compliance mandates. The main policy areas are Technology.
Who Benefits and How
Minority and women broadcast station buyers could face fewer barriers, Donors of broadcast stations to qualifying charities could see lower costs, and Sellers of broadcast stations to socially disadvantaged buyers could see lower costs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal Communications Commission would take on compliance duties and Federal Treasury could lose revenue opportunities.
Key Provisions
- Creates congressional findings on broadcast ownership diversity: FCC mission to ensure diversity, data showing women own only 5% of TV stations and minorities own less than 4%, and the 287 radio and 40 TV certificates...
- Requires FCC biennial reporting requirements: recommendations on increasing number and value of broadcast stations owned by socially disadvantaged individuals, plus data report on total stations owned by disadvantaged...
- Requires tax certificate program for broadcast station sales furthering ownership by socially disadvantaged individuals, with FCC rulemaking within 1 year, 6-year report on program expansion, and examination of nexus...
- Requires new Section 346 of Communications Act: definitions of socially disadvantaged individuals, FCC certification process for qualifying sales, rules including M sale value limit, 2-3 year minimum holding period...
- Exempts new IRC Section 1071: gain nonrecognition for FCC-certified broadcast station sales treated as involuntary conversion under Sec.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill creates congressional findings on broadcast ownership diversity: FCC mission to ensure diversity, data showing women own only 5% of TV stations and minorities own less than 4%, and the 287 radio and 40 TV certificates, requires FCC biennial reporting requirements: recommendations on increasing number and value of broadcast stations owned by socially disadvantaged individuals, plus data report on total stations owned by disadvantaged, and requires tax certificate program for broadcast station sales furthering ownership by socially disadvantaged individuals, with FCC rulemaking within 1 year, 6-year report on program expansion, and examination of nexus.
Key Policy Areas
Technology
Primary Purpose
The bill creates congressional findings on broadcast ownership diversity: FCC mission to ensure diversity, data showing women own only 5% of TV stations and minorities own less than 4%, and the 287 radio and 40 TV certificates, requires FCC biennial reporting requirements: recommendations on increasing number and value of broadcast stations owned by socially disadvantaged individuals, plus data report on total stations owned by disadvantaged, and requires tax certificate program for broadcast station sales furthering ownership by socially disadvantaged individuals, with FCC rulemaking within 1 year, 6-year report on program expansion, and examination of nexus.
Policy Domains
Section 3 - Findings
Identified Gains
- Minority and women broadcast station buyers
- Donors of broadcast stations to qualifying charities
- Sellers of broadcast stations to socially disadvantaged buyers
- Sellers of broadcast stations to diverse buyers
- Charitable organizations training disadvantaged individuals
Identified Costs
- Federal Communications Commission
- Federal Treasury
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Peters (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Heinrich, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Donors of broadcast stations to qualifying charities, Minority and women broadcast station buyers, Minority and women broadcast station owners
Federal Communications Commission, Federal Treasury
Charitable organizations training disadvantaged individuals
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Commission"
- → Federal Communications Commission
- "Commission"
- → Federal Communications Commission
- "Commission"
- → FCC
- "Commissioner of Internal Revenue"
- → IRS head
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
More than 50% owned by socially disadvantaged individuals with management control
A woman, or an individual subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology