Senate Democrats Introduce Sunshine in Sponsorship Identification Act
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced the Sunshine in Sponsorship Identification Act (S-1260) Thursday, similar to House legislation introduced in late April, as expected (see 1504300039). The four-page Senate bill would “direct the [FCC] to revise and…
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update its sponsorship identification rules applicable to commercial and political advertising,” its text said. The legislation’s backers are all Democrats: Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Gary Peters of Michigan, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon. The bill was referred to the Commerce Committee and would make the FCC begin a rulemaking within 30 days of enactment, to be completed within 270 days, “to update its rules and guidance promulgated under section 317 of the Communications Act.” The FCC would have to “update and modernize its sponsorship identification rules and guidance to reflect current technologies and commercial and political advertising,” the bill said. That rulemaking would also have to involve the FCC investigating how to “ensure that political broadcasts include disclosures containing more detailed information about the identity of the true sponsors of such broadcasts” and to “consider how best to require the disclosure of sponsorship identification information, including by requiring that more detailed sponsorship identification information be placed online or in another form more readily accessible to the public,” the text said.