WASHINGTON – Congress’ stampede to crack down on raunchy radio and TV broadcasts moved forward today as the House overwhelmingly voted to increase fines for violations of federal indecency rules and to require a hearing on revoking a broadcaster’s license after the third offense.

“American parents, Congress has finally heard you,” said Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.). The 391-22 vote in support of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act was a rare display of election-year bipartisanship in an often bitterly divided Congress.

Although lawmakers have complained for decades about sex and violence on radio and TV, the issue gained new intensity after singer Janet Jackson’s breast-baring performance during last month’s Super Bowl halftime show.

And it might be just the beginning: The public outcry over indecency on the tube has given new life to an effort in Congress to further scale back new rules that allow media companies to grow bigger.

The House measure would raise fines from $27,500 to a maximum of $500,000 per violation. Increased fines would make performers “liable for their own words” if their actions were found to be willful, said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the bill’s chief sponsor.

Before the vote, Upton was on the House floor showing colleagues a notebook filled with transcripts of programs that the Federal Communications Commission has fined for indecency.

“When I read through this book, I was embarrassed, embarrassed for the fellow who was sitting next to me on the airplane,” Upton said.

The bill would require the FCC to act on indecency complaints within 180 days, a response to complaints that the agency hasn’t been aggressive enough in enforcing its rules.

A bill moving through the Senate would go further in some areas – including delaying for one year a rule allowing media companies to buy more TV stations. Supporters say the extra time is needed for the General Accounting Office to study the relationship between media consolidation and indecency violations. The bill also would require a study on whether consumers are taking advantage of the V-chip to screen out offensive violent TV programming.

Differences in the bill would be worked out by House-Senate negotiators. The White House issued a statement applauding the House bill for seeking to make radio and television “more suitable for family viewing.”

The bill drew objections from the American Civil Liberties Union, which complained that it would “turn down the thermostat in an already chilly atmosphere, deterring speech that is constitutionally protected.”

Congressional anger over broadcasts was building after the FCC staff last year concluded that singer Bono’s use of a four-letter profanity on the 2003 Golden Globe awards show did not violate indecency standards because the word was used as an adjective rather than a noun; the commission is considering whether to overrule its enforcement bureau in that case.

Lawmakers are also pushing to further roll back a rule that permits a media company to own TV stations reaching 39% of the nation’s viewers. The FCC last year moved to raise the cap from 35% to 45%, but Congress this year set the cap at 39%.

Upton, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, said the House did not address the media ownership rules in the indecency bill because it did not want to subject the measure to a presidential veto. But he acknowledged that the media ownership issue is “not going to go away.”

Lawmakers also are talking about requiring cable and satellite operators to offer a la carte programming in which people pick and pay only for the channels they want. And a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced the Children’s Protection From Violent Programming Act to require that programs be rated for content or that a family hour be created so that violent programming is not televised when children are likely to be watching.