I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1619
To prohibit assistance, including assistance under the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961, to foreign governments that abridge the right to free
speech that would be speech protected by the Constitution of the United
States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Ms. M
ACE(for herself and Ms. SALAZAR) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To prohibit assistance, including assistance under the For-
eign Assistance Act of 1961, to foreign governments
that abridge the right to free speech that would be
speech protected by the Constitution of the United
States, 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 ‘‘No Funds for Fascists 4
Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE TO CERTAIN FOR-1
EIGN GOVERNMENTS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—None of the funds authorized to 3
be appropriated or otherwise made available for assist-4
ance, including assistance under the Foreign Assistance 5
Act of 1961, for any fiscal year that begins on or after 6
the date of the enactment of this Act may be obligated 7
or expended to provide assistance to the government of 8
any foreign country if the Secretary of State determines 9
that— 10
(1) such government, or any employee acting 11
under official authority or influence— 12
(A) abridges the right to free speech that 13
would be speech protected by the Constitution 14
of the United States; or 15
(B) censors speech that would be speech 16
protected by the Constitution of the United 17
States; and 18
(2) such government, or any employee acting 19
under official authority or influence, uses any form 20
of communication (without regard to whether the 21
communication is visible to members of the public) 22
to direct, coerce, compel, or encourage a provider of 23
a covered platform to take, suggest or imply that a 24
provider of a covered platform should take, or re-25
quest that a provider of a covered platform take, any 26
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action to censor speech that would be speech pro-1
tected by the Constitution of the United States. 2
(b) P
UBLICATION INFEDERALREGISTER.—The Sec-3
retary of State shall publish in the Federal Register each 4
determination made under subsection (a). 5
(c) W
AIVER.—Assistance prohibited by subsection (a) 6
may be provided to a country described in that subsection 7
if— 8
(1) the President determines that national secu-9
rity interests justify a waiver of subsection (a) with 10
respect to the country; and 11
(2) at least 15 days before the waiver takes ef-12
fect, the President— 13
(A) consults with the Committee on For-14
eign Affairs of the House of Representatives 15
and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 16
Senate regarding the proposed waiver; and 17
(B) submits to the Speaker of the House 18
of Representatives and the chairman of the 19
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate 20
a report containing— 21
(i) the name of the recipient country; 22
(ii) a description of the national secu-23
rity interests which require the waiver; 24
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(iii) the type and amount of and the 1
justification for the assistance to be pro-2
vided pursuant to the waiver; and 3
(iv) the period of time during which 4
such waiver will be effective. 5
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 6
(1) the term ‘‘covered platform’’ means— 7
(A) an interactive computer service, as 8
that term is defined in section 230(f) of the 9
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 10
230(f)); and 11
(B) any platform through which a media 12
organization disseminates information, without 13
regard to whether the organization disseminates 14
that information— 15
(i) through broadcast or print; 16
(ii) online; or 17
(iii) through any other channel; and 18
(2) the term ‘‘employee acting under official au-19
thority or influence’’, with respect to a foreign gov-20
ernment, means— 21
(A) any employee of such government; and 22
(B) includes— 23
(i) a head of state or head of such 24
government; and 25
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(ii) an individual working under con-1
tract with such government. 2
Æ
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