Concerned Women for America’s (CWA’s) trained volunteer lobbyists of Project 535 descended on Capitol Hill on Wednesday March 1, 2006, to lobby for two Broadcast Decency Bills in the Senate and to raise awareness on the issue of Cable Choice.

The Project 535 ladies met with dozens of Senate staffers to remind them that it has been two years since Janet Jackson’s offensive Super Bowl incident, and little has been done to deal with the issue of broadcast indecency, despite support for decency legislation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the American people.

Project 535 members lobbied for two key bills that would significantly raise fines for broadcast decency violators and ensure that the fines are enforced in a timely manner. Both named the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, these bills (S. 193 and H.R. 310) have been held in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

S. 193, proposed in January 2005 by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), has 27 co-sponsors and has been waiting in the same committee for more than a year. 

H.R. 310, proposed by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Michigan) in January 2005, passed the House overwhelmingly only a month later in a 389-38 vote.  It has also been waiting in Sen. Stevens’ committee for over a year.

Both bills have met great opposition from the television, cable and movie industries, which think that growing television indecency is not a problem.  The same day that CWA’s Project 535 was lobbying on Capitol Hill, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) was lobbying against broadcast decency legislation.  Also, former Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) lobbyist Jack Valenti unveiled a $300 million ad campaign this week in an attempt to stop any indecency legislation.       

“We are up against fierce opposition from the deep-pocketed cable industry, but we have the FCC, the support of the American people, and the overwhelming passage of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act in the House of Representatives,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s Director of Government Relations.

“The Senate Commerce committee has held on to these bills for too long, and all the while television content has grown steadily worse. Project 535’s lobbyists did an amazing job informing staffers about the desires of the American people, and we are hopeful that we will see positive results in a timely manner.”