118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 140
AN ACT
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 2
•HR 140 EH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Speech 2
from Government Interference Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSOR-4
SHIP. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 73 of title 5, United 6
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-7
lowing: 8
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON 9
FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP 10
‘‘§ 7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censor-11
ship 12
‘‘It is the policy of the Congress that employees act-13
ing in their official capacity should neither take action 14
within their authority or influence to promote the censor-15
ship of any lawful speech, nor advocate that a third party, 16
including 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 20
censor any private entity, including outside of nor-21
mal duty hours and while such employee is away 22
from the employee’s normal duty post; or 23
‘‘(2) engage in censorship of a private entity— 24
‘‘(A) while the employee is on duty; 25 3
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‘‘(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 10
or any agency or instrumentality thereof; or 11
‘‘(E) while using any information system 12
or information technology (as defined under 13
section 11101 of title 40). 14
‘‘(b) E
XCEPTIONS FOR LAWENFORCEMENT FUNC-15
TIONS ANDREPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in this section 17
shall be construed to prohibit an employee from en-18
gaging in lawful actions against unlawful speech 19
within the official authority of such employee for the 20
purpose of exercising legitimate law enforcement 21
functions. 22
‘‘(2) R
EPORTING.— 23
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 72 24
hours before an employee exercises a legitimate 25 4
•HR 140 EH
law enforcement function under paragraph (1) 1
to take any action to censor any unlawful 2
speech (in this paragraph referred to as a ‘cen-3
sorship action’), and consistent with subpara-4
graph (D), the head of the agency that employs 5
the employee shall submit, to the Office of Spe-6
cial Counsel and the chair and ranking member 7
of the committees of Congress described under 8
subparagraph (B), a report that includes— 9
‘‘(i) an overview of the action, or ac-10
tions, to be taken, including a summary of 11
the action being taken and the rationale 12
for why a censorship action is necessary; 13
‘‘(ii) the name of the entity which the 14
action is being requested of; 15
‘‘(iii) the person and entity targeted 16
by the censorship action, including the as-17
sociated name or number of any account 18
used or maintained by the entity and a de-19
scription of the specific speech content tar-20
geted; 21
‘‘(iv) the agency’s legal authority for 22
exercising the law enforcement function; 23
‘‘(v) the agency employee or employ-24
ees involved in the censorship action, in-25 5
•HR 140 EH
cluding their position and any direct super-1
visor; 2
‘‘(vi) a list of other agencies that have 3
been involved, consulted, or communicated 4
with in coordination with the censorship 5
action; and 6
‘‘(vii) a classified annex, if the agency 7
head deems it appropriate. 8
‘‘(B) C
OMMITTEES.—The committees of 9
Congress described under this subparagraph are 10
the following: 11
‘‘(i) The Committee on Oversight and 12
Accountability, the Committee on the Judi-13
ciary, the Permanent Select Committee on 14
Intelligence, and the Committee on Energy 15
and Commerce of the House of Represent-16
atives. 17
‘‘(ii) The Committee on Homeland Se-18
curity and Governmental Affairs, the Com-19
mittee on the Judiciary, Select Committee 20
on Intelligence, and the Committee on 21
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 22
the Senate. 23
‘‘(C) C
LARIFICATION OF OFFICE OF SPE -24
CIAL COUNSEL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS .— 25 6
•HR 140 EH
The reporting requirements in this paragraph 1
do not apply to the Office of Special Counsel’s 2
advisory and enforcement functions under sub-3
chapter II of chapter 12. 4
‘‘(D) R
EPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR 5
CERTAIN ACTIONS.— 6
‘‘(i) Any censorship action relating to 7
combating child pornography and exploi-8
tation, human trafficking, or the illegal 9
transporting of or transacting in controlled 10
substances shall be exempt from the re-11
porting requirement under this paragraph. 12
‘‘(ii) With respect to any censorship 13
action related to safeguarding, or pre-14
venting the unlawful dissemination of, 15
properly classified national security infor-16
mation, subparagraph (A) shall be applied 17
by substituting ‘Not later than 72 hours 18
after’ for ‘Not later than 72 hours before’. 19
‘‘(c) P
ENALTIES.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An employee who violates 21
this section shall be subject to— 22
‘‘(A) disciplinary action consisting of re-23
moval, reduction in grade, debarment from 24 7
•HR 140 EH
Federal employment for a period not to exceed 1
10 years, suspension, or reprimand; 2
‘‘(B) an assessment of a civil penalty not 3
to exceed $1,000; or 4
‘‘(C) any combination of the penalties de-5
scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B). 6
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATION TO SENIOR GOVERNMENT 7
OFFICIALS.—Paragraph (1)(B) shall be applied by 8
substituting ‘$50,000’ for ‘$1,000’ for any employee 9
who is— 10
‘‘(A) paid from an appropriation for the 11
White House Office; or 12
‘‘(B) appointed by the President, by and 13
with the advice and consent of the Senate. 14
‘‘(d) E
NFORCEMENT.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-16
graph (2) and subsection (c)(2), this section shall be 17
enforced in the same manner as subchapter III of 18
this chapter. 19
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATION.—Notwithstanding any other 20
provision of law, including section 1215(b), the Spe-21
cial Counsel may, in lieu of sending a report to the 22
President under section 1215(b), seek civil monetary 23
penalties under subsection (c)(2) pursuant to section 24
1215(a). This paragraph shall not be construed to 25 8
•HR 140 EH
limit or otherwise affect the President’s authority to 1
enforce any disciplinary action against an employee 2
described under subsection (c)(2). 3
‘‘(e) R
EPORT.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 240 days 5
after the date of the enactment of this section, and 6
annually thereafter, the Attorney General, in con-7
sultation with the Assistant Attorney General for 8
Civil Rights and the Office of Special Counsel, shall 9
submit to the committees of Congress described in 10
subsection (b)(2)(B) a report evaluating the compli-11
ance by the Federal Government with this section, 12
including a description of any action by the head of 13
an agency or department in the executive branch 14
to— 15
‘‘(A) consult with any third parties about 16
censorship by employees in the executive 17
branch; or 18
‘‘(B) engage in any activity prohibited 19
under this section. 20
‘‘(2) S
UNSET.—This subsection shall terminate 21
on the date that is 10 years after the date of the 22
enactment of this subsection. 23
‘‘(f) A
NNUALTRAINING.—Not less than annually, the 24
head of each employing agency shall provide mandatory 25 9
•HR 140 EH
training on this section and the requirements of this sec-1
tion to each agency employee. 2
‘‘(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subchapter— 3
‘‘(1) the term ‘censor’ or ‘censorship’ means in-4
fluencing or coercing, or directing another to influ-5
ence or coerce, for— 6
‘‘(A) the removal or suppression of lawful 7
speech, in whole or in part, from or on any 8
interactive computer service; 9
‘‘(B) the addition of any disclaimer, infor-10
mation, or other alert to lawful speech being ex-11
pressed on an interactive computer service; or 12
‘‘(C) the removal or restriction of access of 13
any person or entity on an interactive computer 14
service generally available to the public, unless 15
such person or entity is engaged in unlawful 16
speech or criminal activities on such service; 17
‘‘(2) the term ‘employee’ has the meaning given 18
that term in section 7322; 19
‘‘(3) the term ‘interactive computer service’ has 20
the meaning given that term in section 230(f) of the 21
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)); 22
‘‘(4) the term ‘lawful speech’ means speech pro-23
tected by the First Amendment of the Constitution; 24
and 25 10
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‘‘(5) the term ‘unlawful speech’ means speech 1
not protected by the First Amendment of the Con-2
stitution.’’. 3
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 4
for chapter 73 of title 5, United States Code, is amended 5
by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘SUBCHAPTER VIII—PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL EMPLOYEE CENSORSHIP
‘‘7381. Policy regarding Federal employee censorship.
‘‘7382. Prohibition on Federal employee censorship.’’.
(c) INCLUDINGCENSORSHIPACTIVITIESUNDERJU-7
RISDICTION OFOFFICE OFSPECIALCOUNSEL.—Strike 8
paragraph (1) of section 1216(a) of title 5, United States 9
Code, and insert the following: 10
‘‘(1) political activity and censorship prohibited 11
under subchapter III and subchapter VIII of chapter 12
73, relating to political and censorship activities, re-13
spectively, by Federal employees;’’. 14
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 15
or any amendment made by this Act should be interpreted 16
as prohibiting a lawful action by a Federal agency to en-17
force a Federal law or regulation (including any action to 18
enforce a Federal law or regulation addressing obscene 19
matters), to establish or enforce the terms and conditions 20
of Federal financial assistance, or to prohibit a Federal 21
employee from using an official Federal account on an 22
interactive computer service to communicate an official 23 11
•HR 140 EH
policy position, and relevant information, to the public, or 1
provide information through normal press and public af-2
fairs relations. 3
(e) S
EVERABILITY.—If any provision of this Act or 4
any amendment made by this Act, or the application of 5
a provision of this Act or an amendment made by this 6
Act to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconsti-7
tutional, the remainder of this Act, and the application 8
of the provisions to any person or circumstance, shall not 9
be affected by the holding. 10
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. 11
The Congress finds that inspectors general should not 12
less than annually for the next seven years publicly report 13
the number of complaints and tips received, the number 14
of investigations opened, and statistics on how investiga-15
tions were managed and their disposition by that inspector 16
general related to compliance with this Act and the 17
amendments made by this Act. 18
Passed the House of Representatives March 9,
2023.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 140
AN ACT
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.