• Both the House and the Senate are on recess for the elections. They are presently expected to return November 15, 2010.
  • Prior to the recess, the Senate passed S. 2847, the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act” or the ”CALM Act” which targets overly loud commercials on broadcast and cable programming. The bill, introduced in December 2009 by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, would require the FCC to adopt, within one year, rules based on “the ‘Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television’ (A/85), and any successor thereto, approved by the Advanced Television Systems Committee.” The House version of the CALM Act, H.R. 1084, was introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Cal., and passed the House on December 15, 2009. The versions are virtually identical, though S. 2847 contains more extensive language regarding the FCC’s authority to grant waivers of the forthcoming rules.