IB
Union Calendar No. 2
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 140
[Report No. 118–5]
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
M
ARCH2, 2023
Additional sponsors: Mr. G
ROTHMAN, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. LANGWORTHY, Ms.
M
ACE, Mrs. LUNA, Mr. BURCHETT, Mr. HIGGINSof Louisiana, Mr. SES-
SIONS, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. LATURNER, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. FRY, Mrs.
M
CCLAIN, and Ms. GREENEof Georgia
M
ARCH2, 2023
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 9, 2023]
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•HR 140 RH
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.
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•HR 140 RH
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 from 4
Government Interference Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSOR-6
SHIP. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 73 of title 5, United States 8
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL 10
EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP 11
‘‘§ 7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censorship 12
‘‘It is the policy of the Congress that employees acting 13
in their official capacity should neither take action within 14
their authority or influence to promote the censorship of 15
any lawful speech, nor advocate that a third party, includ-16
ing a private entity, censor such speech. 17
‘‘§ 7382. Prohibition on Federal employee censorship 18
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—An employee may not— 19
‘‘(1) use the employee’s official authority to cen-20
sor any private entity, including outside of normal 21
duty hours and while such employee is away from the 22
employee’s normal duty post; or 23
‘‘(2) engage in censorship of a private entity— 24
‘‘(A) while the employee is on duty; 25
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•HR 140 RH
‘‘(B) in any room or building occupied in 1
the discharge of official duties by an individual 2
employed or holding office in the Government of 3
the United States or any agency or instrumen-4
tality thereof; 5
‘‘(C) while wearing a uniform or official in-6
signia identifying the office or position of the 7
employee; 8
‘‘(D) while using any vehicle owned or 9
leased by the Government of the United States or 10
any agency or instrumentality thereof; or 11
‘‘(E) while using any information system or 12
information technology (as defined under section 13
11101 of title 40). 14
‘‘(b) E
XCEPTIONS FOR LAWENFORCEMENT FUNC-15
TIONS ANDREPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in this section shall 17
be construed to prohibit an employee from engaging 18
in lawful actions within the official authority of such 19
employee for the purpose of exercising legitimate law 20
enforcement functions, including activities to— 21
‘‘(A) combat child pornography and exploi-22
tation, human trafficking, or the illegal trans-23
porting of or transacting in controlled sub-24
stances; and 25
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•HR 140 RH
‘‘(B) safeguarding, or preventing, the un-1
lawful dissemination of properly classified na-2
tional security information. 3
‘‘(2) R
EPORTING.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 72 hours 5
before an employee exercises a legitimate law en-6
forcement function to take any action to censor 7
any lawful speech (in this paragraph referred to 8
as a ‘censorship action’), but not including any 9
such action relating to activities described under 10
subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1), the 11
head of the agency that employs the employee 12
shall submit, to the Office of Special Counsel and 13
the chair and ranking member of the committees 14
of Congress described under subparagraph (B), a 15
report that includes— 16
‘‘(i) an overview of the action, or ac-17
tions, to be taken, including a summary of 18
the action being taken and the rationale for 19
why a censorship action is necessary; 20
‘‘(ii) the name of the entity which the 21
action is being requested of; 22
‘‘(iii) the person and entity targeted by 23
the censorship action, including the associ-24
ated name or number of any account used 25
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•HR 140 RH
or maintained by the entity and a descrip-1
tion of the specific speech content targeted; 2
‘‘(iv) the agency’s legal authority for 3
exercising the law enforcement function; 4
‘‘(v) the agency employee or employees 5
involved in the censorship action, including 6
their position and any direct supervisor; 7
‘‘(vi) a list of other agencies that have 8
been involved, consulted, or communicated 9
with in coordination with the censorship ac-10
tion; and 11
‘‘(vii) a classified annex, if the agency 12
head deems it appropriate. 13
‘‘(B) C
OMMITTEES.—The committees of 14
Congress described under this subparagraph are 15
the following: 16
‘‘(i) The Committee on Oversight and 17
Accountability, the Committee on the Judi-18
ciary, and the Committee on Energy and 19
Commerce of the House of Representatives; 20
and 21
‘‘(ii) The Committee on Homeland Se-22
curity and Governmental Affairs, the Com-23
mittee on the Judiciary, and the Committee 24
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•HR 140 RH
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 1
of the Senate. 2
‘‘(C) C
LARIFICATION OF OFFICE OF SPECIAL 3
COUNSEL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS .—The re-4
porting requirements in this paragraph do not 5
apply to the Office of Special Counsel’s advisory 6
and enforcement functions under subchapter II 7
of chapter 12. 8
‘‘(c) P
ENALTIES.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An employee who violates 10
this section shall be subject to— 11
‘‘(A) disciplinary action consisting of re-12
moval, reduction in grade, debarment from Fed-13
eral employment for a period not to exceed 5 14
years, suspension, or reprimand; 15
‘‘(B) an assessment of a civil penalty not to 16
exceed $1,000; or 17
‘‘(C) any combination of the penalties de-18
scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B). 19
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATION TO SENIOR GOVERNMENT OF -20
FICIALS.—Paragraph (1)(B) shall be applied by sub-21
stituting ‘$10,000’ for ‘$1,000’ for any employee who 22
is— 23
‘‘(A) paid from an appropriation for the 24
White House Office; or 25
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•HR 140 RH
‘‘(B) appointed by the President, by and 1
with the advice and consent of the Senate; 2
‘‘(d) E
NFORCEMENT.—This section shall be enforced in 3
the same manner as subchapter III of this chapter. 4
‘‘(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subchapter— 5
‘‘(1) the term ‘censor’ or ‘censorship’ means in-6
fluencing or coercing, or directing another to influ-7
ence or coerce, for— 8
‘‘(A) the removal or suppression of lawful 9
speech, in whole or in part, from or on any 10
interactive computer service; 11
‘‘(B) the addition of any disclaimer, infor-12
mation, or other alert to lawful speech being ex-13
pressed on an interactive computer service; or 14
‘‘(C) the removal or restriction of access of 15
any person or entity on an interactive computer 16
service generally available to the public, unless 17
such person or entity is engaged in unlawful 18
speech or criminal activities on such service; 19
‘‘(2) the term ‘employee’ has the meaning given 20
that term in section 7322; 21
‘‘(3) the term ‘interactive computer service’ has 22
the meaning given that term in section 230(f) of the 23
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)); and 24
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•HR 140 RH
‘‘(4) the term ‘lawful speech’ means speech pro-1
tected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections for 3
chapter 73 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by 4
adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP
‘‘7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censorship.
‘‘7382. Prohibition on Federal employee censorship.’’.
(c) INCLUDINGCENSORSHIPACTIVITIESUNDERJU-6
RISDICTION OFOFFICE OFSPECIALCOUNSEL.—Strike 7
paragraph (1) of section 1216(a) of title 5, United States 8
Code, and insert the following: 9
‘‘(1) political activity and censorship prohibited 10
under subchapter III and subchapter VIII of chapter 11
73, relating to political and censorship activities, re-12
spectively, by Federal employees;’’. 13
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act or 14
any amendment made by this Act should be interpreted as 15
prohibiting a lawful action by a Federal agency to enforce 16
a Federal law or regulation, to establish or enforce the terms 17
and conditions of Federal financial assistance, or to pro-18
hibit a Federal employee from using an official Federal ac-19
count on an interactive computer service to communicate 20
an official policy position, and relevant information, to the 21
public, or provide information through normal press and 22
public affairs relations. 23
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•HR 140 RH
(e) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this Act or 1
any amendment made by this Act, or the application of 2
a provision of this Act or an amendment made by this Act 3
to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitu-4
tional, the remainder of this Act, and the application of 5
the provisions to any person or circumstance, shall not be 6
affected by the holding. 7
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2
118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 140
[Report No. 118–5]
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to prohibit
Federal employees from advocating for censor-
ship of viewpoints in their official capacity, and
for other purposes.
M
ARCH
2, 2023
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,
and ordered to be printed
VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:49 Mar 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H140.RH H140
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS