(CNSNews.com) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he would prefer that an amendment empowering the Federal Communications Commission to take “affirmative actions” to regulate the ownership of broadcast stations had not been added to the D.C. Voting Rights Act by the Senate.
Hoyer would not say whether he supports the amendment. But he did say that he thinks the amendment is drawing attention away from the D.C. Voting Rights Act, the purpose of which is to grant the District of Columbia a seat in the House of Representatives.
“I would prefer that was not in the bill,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com when asked if he supported the amendment, which was introduced on Feb. 26 by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Durbin’s amendment says “certain affirmative actions” are “required” of the FCC, including “actions to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership and to ensure that broadcast station licenses are used in the public interest.” The amendment passed on a vote of 57-41.
The amendment’s language is viewed by many conservative media experts as a means to regulate conservative talk radio, particularly popular programs such as the Rush Limbaugh show and the Sean Hannity show, among many others.
Minutes after passage of the “Durbin amendment,” a separate amendment that would ban the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine, which was proposed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), was attached to the same D.C. Voting Rights Act and passed by a vote of 87-11.
The Fairness Doctrine was a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation introduced in 1949 that said companies with broadcast licenses had to present controversial political issues in a fair and balanced way, which usually translated into broadcasting divergent political viewpoints on issues. The FCC stopped implementing the rule in 1987.
The future of both DeMint’s and Durbin’s amendments is now in the hands of Hoyer and the House Democratic leadership, which has the power to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
Hoyer has tentatively scheduled a vote for later this week on a House version of the D.C. Voting Rights Act that does not include either the DeMint or Durbin amendment.
“This bill is about giving to 600,000 Americans what every one of their fellow citizens has -- and that is a voting member of the House of Representatives,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com when asked about the amendment concerning the FCC. “I think it undermines our Democracy to have our capital city not have vote in the Congress of the United States.”
“I think that’s what we ought to be focusing on,” said Hoyer. “Not guns. Not FCC. Not anything else – that’s what this bill is about. We ought to limit our consideration to that. I am sorry there have been extraneous issues put on this bill.”
“I prefer it wasn’t on there,” said Hoyer.