Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1619 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 1619
5	5	To prohibit assistance, including assistance under the Foreign Assistance
6	6	Act of 1961, to foreign governments that abridge the right to free
7	7	speech that would be speech protected by the Constitution of the United
8	8	States, and for other purposes.
9	9	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10	10	FEBRUARY26, 2025
11	11	Ms. M
12	12	ACE(for herself and Ms. SALAZAR) introduced the following bill; which
13	13	was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
14	14	A BILL
15	15	To prohibit assistance, including assistance under the For-
16	16	eign Assistance Act of 1961, to foreign governments
17	17	that abridge the right to free speech that would be
18	18	speech protected by the Constitution of the United
19	19	States, and for other purposes.
20	20	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
21	21	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
22	22	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
23	23	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Funds for Fascists 4
24	24	Act’’. 5
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27	27	•HR 1619 IH
28	28	SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE TO CERTAIN FOR-1
29	29	EIGN GOVERNMENTS. 2
30	30	(a) I
31	31	NGENERAL.—None of the funds authorized to 3
32	32	be appropriated or otherwise made available for assist-4
33	33	ance, including assistance under the Foreign Assistance 5
34	34	Act of 1961, for any fiscal year that begins on or after 6
35	35	the date of the enactment of this Act may be obligated 7
36	36	or expended to provide assistance to the government of 8
37	37	any foreign country if the Secretary of State determines 9
38	38	that— 10
39	39	(1) such government, or any employee acting 11
40	40	under official authority or influence— 12
41	41	(A) abridges the right to free speech that 13
42	42	would be speech protected by the Constitution 14
43	43	of the United States; or 15
44	44	(B) censors speech that would be speech 16
45	45	protected by the Constitution of the United 17
46	46	States; and 18
47	47	(2) such government, or any employee acting 19
48	48	under official authority or influence, uses any form 20
49	49	of communication (without regard to whether the 21
50	50	communication is visible to members of the public) 22
51	51	to direct, coerce, compel, or encourage a provider of 23
52	52	a covered platform to take, suggest or imply that a 24
53	53	provider of a covered platform should take, or re-25
54	54	quest that a provider of a covered platform take, any 26
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57	57	•HR 1619 IH
58	58	action to censor speech that would be speech pro-1
59	59	tected by the Constitution of the United States. 2
60	60	(b) P
61	61	UBLICATION INFEDERALREGISTER.—The Sec-3
62	62	retary of State shall publish in the Federal Register each 4
63	63	determination made under subsection (a). 5
64	64	(c) W
65	65	AIVER.—Assistance prohibited by subsection (a) 6
66	66	may be provided to a country described in that subsection 7
67	67	if— 8
68	68	(1) the President determines that national secu-9
69	69	rity interests justify a waiver of subsection (a) with 10
70	70	respect to the country; and 11
71	71	(2) at least 15 days before the waiver takes ef-12
72	72	fect, the President— 13
73	73	(A) consults with the Committee on For-14
74	74	eign Affairs of the House of Representatives 15
75	75	and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 16
76	76	Senate regarding the proposed waiver; and 17
77	77	(B) submits to the Speaker of the House 18
78	78	of Representatives and the chairman of the 19
79	79	Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate 20
80	80	a report containing— 21
81	81	(i) the name of the recipient country; 22
82	82	(ii) a description of the national secu-23
83	83	rity interests which require the waiver; 24
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86	86	•HR 1619 IH
87	87	(iii) the type and amount of and the 1
88	88	justification for the assistance to be pro-2
89	89	vided pursuant to the waiver; and 3
90	90	(iv) the period of time during which 4
91	91	such waiver will be effective. 5
92	92	(d) D
93	93	EFINITIONS.—In this section— 6
94	94	(1) the term ‘‘covered platform’’ means— 7
95	95	(A) an interactive computer service, as 8
96	96	that term is defined in section 230(f) of the 9
97	97	Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 10
98	98	230(f)); and 11
99	99	(B) any platform through which a media 12
100	100	organization disseminates information, without 13
101	101	regard to whether the organization disseminates 14
102	102	that information— 15
103	103	(i) through broadcast or print; 16
104	104	(ii) online; or 17
105	105	(iii) through any other channel; and 18
106	106	(2) the term ‘‘employee acting under official au-19
107	107	thority or influence’’, with respect to a foreign gov-20
108	108	ernment, means— 21
109	109	(A) any employee of such government; and 22
110	110	(B) includes— 23
111	111	(i) a head of state or head of such 24
112	112	government; and 25
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115	115	•HR 1619 IH
116	116	(ii) an individual working under con-1
117	117	tract with such government. 2
118	118	Æ
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