The US Senate has passed the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009, which amends the Communications Act of 1934 to allow jamming or blocking of illicit mobile phones in prisons. The House of Representatives now needs to vote on the proposal. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t currently permit any kind of mobile blocker; the new law would allow the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the chief executive officer of a state to ask the FCC for permission to use such a device as long as it didn’t affect communications anywhere outside the prison.