Violence Bill Still on Drawing Board

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/3/2007 2:07:00 AM

Congress will break for its August recess without a floor vote on the bill that restores the FCC's power to punish fleeting profanities, and apparently without introducing a long-awaited media violence bill.

According to committee sources, it was not for lack of will on the part of those backing the efforts, but for a way to find the floor time amongst immigration, homeland security and other bills.

In the case of West Virginia Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller's violence bill, it was a matter of finding time to concentrate on fleshing out the bill, which will give the FCC the power to regulate violence on broadcast and cable TV, according to a Rockefeller staffer.

Those Rockefeller's staffers had been working toward introducing the bill this week, but the senator was working hard on children's health care and intelligence bills. The staffer says the long-anticipated bill will be introduced after the break.

The profanity-powers restoration bill--also proposed by Rockefeller--passed in the Senate Commerce Committee in response to a court ruling that essentially put the breaks on the FCC's enforcement of fleeting profanities.

It failed to get a floor vote, in part, because of the time spent on the homeland security bill, which passed July 27.