# Communications Act of 1934 The **Communications Act of 1934** (Pub. L. 73-416, codified at 47 U.S.C. ch. 5) created the Federal Communications Commission and remains the framework statute for American broadcasting and telecommunications. Its emergency provision is **§ 706** (47 U.S.C. § 606), titled "War powers of President." Its subsections do different things and have different triggers: § 606(a) allows priority for defense-essential communications during a war; **§ 606(c)** permits the President, upon proclaiming "a state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency" or a **state or threat of war**, to suspend or amend FCC regulations, close radio stations, or authorize government use of them; and § 606(d) reaches wire facilities. The provision is sometimes described in shorthand as an internet "kill switch." The statutory text is older and narrower than that phrase implies, has never been construed by a court in the modern network context, and its most sweeping subsection is keyed to war rather than to an ordinary emergency declaration. Stub — expand with the FCC's role, the 2010–12 reform proposals, and the standby-authority literature. ## See also - [[Emergency Powers Crosswalk]] - [[National Emergencies Act]]