NEWS FROM

Congressman Nathan Deal

Ninth District of Georgia

REP. DEAL BACKS

RELIGIOUS BROADCASTING FREEDOM ACT

WASHINGTON, DC - In the House of Representatives today, U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal joined 50 other members in introducing the Religious Broadcasting Freedom Act. The bill would reverse an action taken by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in December that limits religious speech in broadcasting.

Deal, a senior member of the Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee of the powerful House Commerce Committee stated, "The FCC wants less religion on television and more of what it considers to be educational, and I don't think North Georgian's take too kindly to the FCC deciding what's educational for them."

The legislation would nullify the "guidance" on this issue contained in FCC Order #99-393, made public December 29, 1999. Additionally, it would require the FCC to use its normal rule making procedures, which include taking public comment, if it chooses to regulate this area in the future.

The issue arose when the FCC approved a television license swap in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 15 and made its order public on December 29, 1999. In the order, the FCC instructed for the first time that traditional religious programming could no longer be counted as educational.

Non-commercial television licenses are intended to serve the educational and cultural needs of smaller audiences and under-represented populations. General education programming had previously been defined as having its primary purpose be to meet "educational, instructional or cultural needs of the community."
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