Congress·In Committee·S. 2123

Broadcast VOICES Act

Broadcast VOICES Act: Increasing Diversity in Radio and TV Ownership

Jun 18, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

Next up: A senate committeeNo action in 13 months

The Broadcast VOICES Act was recently introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Finance for review. It is currently in the early stages of the legislative process and is waiting for the committee to take action. There are no upcoming votes scheduled at this time.

Legislative Progress

Senate

House

President

Law

Unlikely to pass

The bill currently lacks Republican cosponsors and faces a difficult path in a divided Congress where diversity-focused tax incentives are often a point of partisan disagreement.

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from S. 4158 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
S. 4158 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill aims to increase the number of radio and television stations owned by women and minorities. It brings back a program that gives tax breaks to people who sell their stations to individuals from these underrepresented groups.
Sellers can delay paying taxes on their profits if they sell a station to a woman or a person who has faced racial or ethnic bias. This makes it more financially attractive for current owners to sell to diverse buyers rather than large corporations.
The policy targets a major gap in media ownership. Currently, women own only about 5 percent of commercial TV stations, and minorities own less than 4 percent. The goal is to ensure that the people running local news and entertainment reflect the diversity of the country.
To prevent people from taking advantage of the system, the bill includes strict rules. The tax break only applies to sales worth $50 million or less, and the new owners must keep and run the station for at least two years.
The bill also creates a tax credit for companies that donate stations to charities. These charities must have a mission of training women and minorities on how to manage and operate broadcast businesses.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Jun 18, 2025Senate

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Jun 18, 2025

Introduced in Senate

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes or news coverage recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

Broadcast VOICES Act

Bill NumberS 2123

Congress119th Congress

ChamberSenate

Latest ActionRead twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Cosponsors

(6)

D: 6

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.