I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 140
To amend title 5, United States Code, to prohibit Federal employees from
advocating for censorship of viewpoints in their official capacity, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. C
OMER(for himself, Mr. JORDAN, and Mrs. RODGERSof Washington) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Over-
sight and Accountability
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to prohibit Federal
employees from advocating for censorship of viewpoints
in their official capacity, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Speech 4
from Government Interference Act’’. 5
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•HR 140 IH
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSOR-1
SHIP. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 73 of title 5, United 3
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON 6
FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP 7
‘‘§ 7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censor-8
ship 9
‘‘It is the policy of the Congress that employees act-10
ing in their official capacity should neither take action 11
within their authority or influence to promote the censor-12
ship of any speech, nor advocate that a third party, includ-13
ing a private entity, censor such speech. 14
‘‘§ 7382. Prohibition on Federal employee censorship 15
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—An employee may not— 16
‘‘(1) use the employee’s official authority or in-17
fluence to advocate that any third party, including 18
a private entity, take any action to censor any 19
speech; 20
‘‘(2) knowingly censor or discourage the exer-21
cise of speech of any person who— 22
‘‘(A) has an application for any compensa-23
tion, grant, contract, ruling, license, permit, or 24
certificate pending before the employing office 25
of such employee; or 26
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‘‘(B) is the subject of or a participant in 1
an ongoing audit, investigation, or enforcement 2
action being carried out by the employing office 3
of such employee; or 4
‘‘(3) engage in censorship— 5
‘‘(A) while the employee is on duty; 6
‘‘(B) in any room or building occupied in 7
the discharge of official duties by an individual 8
employed or holding office in the Government of 9
the United States or any agency or instrumen-10
tality thereof; 11
‘‘(C) while wearing a uniform or official in-12
signia identifying the office or position of the 13
employee; or 14
‘‘(D) using any vehicle owned or leased by 15
the Government of the United States or any 16
agency or instrumentality thereof. 17
‘‘(b) F
URTHERRESTRICTEDEMPLOYEES.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An employee described in 19
paragraph (2) may not knowingly censor or discour-20
age the exercise of speech of a person at any time, 21
including outside normal duty hours and while such 22
employee is away from their normal duty post. 23
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•HR 140 IH
‘‘(2) FURTHER RESTRICTED EMPLOYEE DE -1
SCRIBED.—The provisions of paragraph (1) shall 2
apply to any employee— 3
‘‘(A) whose duties and responsibilities of 4
the employee’s position continue outside normal 5
duty hours and while away from the normal 6
duty post; and 7
‘‘(B) who is— 8
‘‘(i) an employee paid from an appro-9
priation for the Executive Office of the 10
President; or 11
‘‘(ii) an employee appointed by the 12
President, by and with the advice and con-13
sent of the Senate, whose position is lo-14
cated within the United States, who deter-15
mines policies to be pursued by the United 16
States in relations with foreign powers or 17
in the nationwide administration of Fed-18
eral laws. 19
‘‘(c) E
XCEPTIONS.—Nothing in this Act shall be con-20
strued to prohibit an employee from engaging in lawful 21
actions within the official authority of such employee for 22
the purpose of exercising legitimate law enforcement func-23
tions directly related to activities to combat child pornog-24
raphy, human trafficking, or the illegal transporting of or 25
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•HR 140 IH
transacting in controlled substances and safeguarding, or 1
preventing, the unlawful dissemination of properly classi-2
fied national security information. 3
‘‘(d) P
ENALTIES.—An employee who violates this sec-4
tion shall be subject to— 5
‘‘(1) disciplinary action consisting of removal, 6
reduction in grade, debarment from Federal employ-7
ment for a period not to exceed 5 years, suspension, 8
or reprimand; 9
‘‘(2) an assessment of a civil penalty not to ex-10
ceed $10,000; or 11
‘‘(3) any combination of the penalties described 12
in paragraph (1) or (2). 13
‘‘(e) E
NFORCEMENT.—This section shall be enforced 14
in the same manner as subchapter III of this chapter. 15
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subchapter— 16
‘‘(1) the term ‘censor’ or ‘censorship’ means or-17
dering or advocating for— 18
‘‘(A) the removal or suppression of lawful 19
speech, in whole or in part, from or on any 20
platform (including an interactive computer 21
service); 22
‘‘(B) the addition of any disclaimer, infor-23
mation, or other alert to such speech being ex-24
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•HR 140 IH
pressed on any platform (including an inter-1
active computer service); or 2
‘‘(C) the removal or restriction of access of 3
any person on any platform (including an inter-4
active computer service) generally available to 5
the public, unless such person is engaged in 6
criminal activities; 7
‘‘(2) the term ‘employee’ has the meaning given 8
that term in section 7322; and 9
‘‘(3) the term ‘interactive computer service’ has 10
the meaning given that term in section 230(f) of the 11
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)).’’. 12
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 13
for chapter 73 of title 5, United States Code, is amended 14
by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP
‘‘7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censorship.
‘‘7382. Prohibition on Federal employee censorship.’’.
(c) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this Act or 16
any amendment made by this Act, or the application of 17
a provision of this Act or an amendment made by this 18
Act to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconsti-19
tutional, the remainder of this Act, and the application 20
of the provisions to any person or circumstance, shall not 21
be affected by the holding. 22
Æ
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