H.R. 1084 (111th): CALM Act

Introduced:
Feb 13, 2009 (111th Congress, 2009–2010)
Sponsor:
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA14]
Status:
Died (Passed House)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

(About Ads | Advertise Here)
Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on December 15, 2009 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced Feb 13, 2009
Referred to Committee Feb 13, 2009
Reported by Committee Nov 19, 2009
Passed House Dec 15, 2009
Cosponsors
90 cosponsors (89D, 1R) (show)
Committees

House Energy and Commerce

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Dec 16, 2009.
3 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

GovTrack gets most information from THOMAS, which is updated generally one day after events occur. Activity since the last update may not be reflected here.

Citation

Click a format for a citation suggestion:

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

12/15/2009--Passed House amended.
Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act or the CALM Act - Directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prescribe a regulation that is limited to incorporating by reference, and making mandatory, the Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television approved by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, so far as the recommended practice concerns the transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor.
Allows the FCC to waive the regulation if obtaining the equipment to comply would result in financial hardship.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr1084.

Background

Some television viewers have complained about volume fluctuations between a program and commercials shown during the program. Broadcasters and program producers currently have leeway on the volume levels used for advertisements, and the Federal Communications Commission does not currently regulate this issue.

 

 

Summary

H.R. 1084 would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt an industry-created standard capping the volume level of television commercials and equalizing the volume between advertisements and other television programming within one year. The regulations would take effect one year after adopted by the FCC. The bill would permit the FCC to grant a waiver for one year if a broadcast station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor could demonstrate a financial hardship, and the waiver could be renewed for one additional year.

Cost

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing H.R. 1084 would have no significant impact on the federal budget. However, the bill contains intergovernmental and private sector mandates by requiring television broadcast stations, cable operators, and other distributers of television programming to meet the proposed standard.

 

 

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)