Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 1677 - Children's Television Act of 1990

(Senate)
(Bryant (D) Texas and 43 others)

The Administration is concerned about the need to protect children from excessive commercial advertising and to enhance the quality of children's television. Nevertheless, because the approach adopted in H.R. 1677 will likely be self-defeating and because the bill raises extremely serious questions under the First Amendment, the Administration strongly opposes its enactment.

As the Administration has previously indicated, serious constitutional questions are raised by the provision in H.R. 1677 that permits the denial of broadcast license renewals if a station does not carry what the Government views as adequate programming for children. The bill's imposition of rigid quantitative limits on advertising during children's programming also raises constitutional questions, and the provision may actually cause a reduction in the amount and/or quality of children's programming by reducing the funding available for it.

The provision extending the bill's advertising restrictions to cable operators creates new and extremely serious First Amendment problems. Whatever basis may exist for heightened regulation of broadcast licensees because of a "scarcity of broadcast frequencies," this rationale is inapplicable to cable operators. Accordingly, cable television is entitled to the same First Amendment protection as the print media. Although commercial advertising is subject to the commercial speech doctrine, rather than to the strictest standards of First Amendment scrutiny, H.R. 1677's restrictions on cable operators raise extremely grave constitutional problems.