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[Senate Report 114-295]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

114th Congress } 					{ Report
 2d Session    }                  SENATE                { 114-295
_______________________________________________________________________

             COMBAT TERRORIST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACT OF 2016

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                             TO ACCOMPANY

                                S. 2517

            TO REQUIRE A REPORT ON UNITED STATES STRATEGY TO
      COMBAT TERRORIST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                 July 11, 2016.--Ordered to be printed
       
       
                              ____________
                              
                              
                        U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                               WASHINGTON : 2016
       
       
     
       
       
       COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                    RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona                 THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
RAND PAUL, Kentucky                  JON TESTER, Montana
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming             HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire          CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
JONI ERNST, Iowa                     GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
BEN SASSE, Nebraska

                  Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
                Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
         Elizabeth McWhorter, Senior Professional Staff Member
              Gabrielle A. Batkin, Minority Staff Director
           John P. Kilvington, Minority Deputy Staff Director
               Mary Beth Schultz, Minority Chief Counsel
       Harlan C. Geer, Minority Senior Professional Staff Member
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     
                     
                     

                                                       Calendar No. 551
                                                       
114th Congress}						{ Report
                                 SENATE
                                                              
 2nd Session  }                                         { 114-295

======================================================================
 
            COMBAT TERRORIST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACT OF 2016

                                _______
                                

                 July 11, 2016.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 2517]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 2517) to require a 
report on United States strategy to combat terrorist use of 
social media, and for other purposes, having considered the 
same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends 
that the bill, as amended, do pass.

                               
                               
                               CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I. Purpose and Summary..............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................5
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................6
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................6
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................7
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............7

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    The purpose of S. 2517, the Combat Terrorist Use of Social 
Media Act of 2016, is to require the President to provide 
Congress with the strategy of the United States to combat 
terrorists' and terrorist organizations' use of social media. 
The bill also requires the President to provide Congress with a 
report and evaluation of the United States' efforts, to date, 
to combat terrorists' and terrorist organizations' use of 
social media.

              II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    In 2015, President Barack Obama identified the following 
groups as the preeminent security threat to our country: Al 
Qaeda, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and their 
affiliates.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\See generally, National Security Strategy, The White House 20 
(2015), available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/
docs/2015_national_securitystrategy.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 
approximately 250 Americans have either traveled, or attempted 
to travel, to Syria and Iraq.\2\
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    \2\E-mail correspondence between HSGAC Comm. staff and FBI 
Congressional Affairs Liaison, May 23, 2016 (on file with Comm. staff).
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    Homegrown violent extremists are also increasingly 
conducting simple, opportunistic attacks at home.\3\ In the 
wake of international efforts to deter foreign fighters from 
joining ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group's message 
is ``if you cannot travel, kill where you are.''\4\ This makes 
the approximately 900 ISIS-inspired individuals the FBI was 
investigating throughout the country in late 2015 especially 
alarming.\5\ From two or three homegrown violent extremist 
attacks a year in 2009, the number of these incidents jumped to 
a dozen just five years later in 2014, and more than doubled in 
2015.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\See generally, Threats to the Homeland: Hearing Before S. Comm. 
on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2015) (statement 
of Nicholas Rasmussen, Director, National Counterterrorism Center), 
available at http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/?id=83C519E9-9310-
4587-B00F-07179D39C0AD [hereinafter Threats to the Homeland].
    \4\Threats to the Homeland (statement of James Comey, Director, The 
Federal Bureau of Investigation at 1).
    \5\Lorenzo Vidino & Seamus Hughes, ISIS in America: From Retweets 
to Raqqa, The George Washington University Program on Extremism (Dec. 
2015), https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/cchs.gwu.edu/files/downloads/
ISIS%20in%20America%20-%20Full%20Report_0.pdf. [hereinafter ISIS in 
America: From Retweets to Raqqa].
    \6\Threats to the Homeland (statement of Nicholas Rasmussen, 
Director, National Counterterrorism Center at 2).
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    Examples of recent incidents include attacks in 2009 in 
Little Rock, Arkansas and Ft. Hood, Texas; bombings at the 
Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts and shootings in 
Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2013; shootings in Garland, Texas and 
San Bernardino, California in 2015; and the attack in Orlando, 
Florida in 2016.\7\
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    \7\See generally, The Ideology of ISIS: Hearing Before the S. Comm. 
on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2016); Terrorism 
Gone Viral: Attack in Garland, Texas and Beyond: Hearing Before H. 
Homeland Sec. Comm., 114th Cong. (2015) (statement of Michael B. 
Steinbach, Assistant Director, the Federal Bureau of Investigation), 
available at http://docs.house.gov/meetings/HM/HM00/20150603/103513/
HHRG-114-HM00-Wstate-SteinbachM-20150603.pdf; see also ISIS in America: 
From Retweets to Raqqa at 3-4, 31.
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Spreading a poisonous ideology via the Internet

    In May 2008, Committee staff published a report titled 
Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown 
Terrorist Threat warning about the increased frequency with 
which United States-based militants are active online.\8\ The 
internet allows groups like ISIS to distribute their poisonous 
ideology unbound by national borders, requiring homeland 
security efforts to consider countering this ideology 
online.\9\ The 9/11 Review Commission described the online 
radicalization efforts of these groups as ``an unprecedented 
challenge'' that ``transcends geographic boundaries and 
demographics.''\10\
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    \8\Staff of S. Comm. on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 
110th Cong., Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the 
Homegrown Terrorist Threat (Comm. Print, May 8, 2008), available at 
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov//imo/media/doc/IslamistReport.pdf.
    \9\S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 112th Cong., 
Special Report, Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the 
U.S. Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack, 7, 18-9 
(Feb. 2011); see also J.M. Berger & Jonathan Morgan, The ISIS Twitter 
Census: Defining and Describing the Population of ISIS Supporters on 
Twitter, The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World 
No. 20 (2015), available at http://www.brookings.edu//media/research/
files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/
isis_twitter_census_berger_morgan.pdf; National Consortium for the 
Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), Transcending 
Organization: Individuals and the `Islamic State' (2014).
    \10\9/11 Review Commission, The FBI: Protecting the Homeland in the 
21st Century (Mar. 2015), available at https://www.fbi.gov/stats-
services/publications/protecting-the-homeland-in-the-21st-century.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has 
testified before this Committee that terrorist groups use the 
internet to ``inspire individuals to conduct attacks within 
their own homelands.''\11\ Between 2014 and June 2016, 
homegrown violent jihadists plotted 76 total plots in the 
United States.\12\
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    \11\Threats to the Homeland (statement of Jeh Johnson, Secretary, 
Dep't of Homeland Security).
    \12\Jerome P. Bjelopera, Cong. Research Serv., R44110, The Islamic 
State's Acolytes and the Challenges They Pose to U.S. Law Enforcement 
(2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda value strategic communication 
as integral to the advancement of their political agendas.\13\ 
It allows them to establish legitimacy through historical or 
religious narratives that resonate with target audiences and 
potential supporters.\14\ Al Qaeda's current leader once 
stated, ``We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle 
is taking place in the battlefield of the media.''\15\ An 
American citizen who once served as a terrorist group 
commander, propagandist, and recruiter further elaborated on 
this stance that ``[t]he war of narratives has become even more 
important than the war of navies, napalm, and knives.''\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\Naureen Chowdhury Fink & Jack Barclay, Mastering the Narrative: 
Counterterrorism Strategic Communication and the United Nations, Center 
on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, 20-21 (Feb. 2013), available at 
http://globalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/
Feb2013_CT_StratComm.pdf; Carsten Bockstette, Jihadist Terrorist Use of 
Strategic Communication Management Techniques, European Center for 
Security Studies at 5 (Dec. 2008), available at http://
www.marshallcenter.org/mcpublicweb/MCDocs/files/College/F_Publications/
occPapers/occ-paper_20-en.pdf; Gregory L. Keeney & Detlof von 
Winterfeldt, Identifying and Structuring the Objectives of Terrorists, 
CREATE Homeland Security Center (Aug. 2009), available at http://
research.create.usc.edu/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&context=nonpublished_reports.
    \14\Joanna Nathan & Antonio Giustozzi, Decoding the New Taliban: 
Insights from the Afghan Field 23-42 (2012) (explaining that the 
extensive efforts undertaken by the Taliban to frame the fight as jihad 
imply that they view the legitimacy conveyed by these words as a 
critical source of strength in their fight); Will McCants, The ISIS 
Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic 
State 56 (1st ed. 2015) (explaining that Osama bin Laden was so 
frustrated with Western media's shortening of Al Qaeda's full name, 
Qa'idat al-Jihad, to a word that had nothing to do with Islam that he 
considered changing the group's name to one that would force the media 
and United States government to acknowledge the Islamic nature of the 
group and reinforce his narrative that the West was at war with 
Islam.).
    \15\Office of the Director of Nat'l Intelligence, Letter from al-
Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi (Oct. 2005), available at http://fas.org/irp/
news/2005/10/dni101105.html.
    \16\U.S. Dep't of State, Remarks of Alberto Fernandez, Coordinator 
for the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, 
Conference at the Newseum (Dec. 2013), available at http://
www.state.gov/r/cscc/releases/218606.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and 
Responses to Terrorism (START) notes that ``the internet played 
an increasingly pivotal role'' in the radicalization of foreign 
fighters.''\17\ In 2002, just 37 percent of Americans 
attempting to travel to join terrorist groups were influenced 
by the internet in some way,\18\ compared to 83 percent in 
2015.\19\ Furthermore, as the internet's influence has 
increased, the average time from initial radicalization to the 
decision to travel has decreased from approximately 16 months 
in 2002 to less than 10 months in 2015.\20\ The window of 
opportunity for intervention before criminal action is 
diminishing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\Overview: Profiles of Individual Radicalization in United 
States-Foreign Fighters (PIRUS-FF), START Consortium (Apr. 2016), 
available at https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_PIRUS-
FF_InfographicSeries_April2016.pdf.
    \18\Id.
    \19\Id.
    \20\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inadequate Federal response

    Despite this accelerating and increasing threat to the 
homeland, numerous experts have testified before this Committee 
that the United States currently lacks a comprehensive strategy 
to combat and counter terrorist narratives online.\21\ It may 
be the case that no message is powerful enough to neutralize 
this threat. However, identifying narrative themes that 
influence homegrown violent extremists can inform an alignment 
of words and deeds that undercut perceived inconsistencies 
often exploited by terrorist propaganda.\22\ A Federal review 
of terrorist narratives for these themes and a subsequent 
national strategy to combat and counter those narratives will 
ensure consistency among United States policies, actions, and 
words.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\Inside the Mind of ISIS: Understanding Its Goals and Ideology 
to Better Protect the Homeland: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland 
Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2016) (statement of Jessica 
Stern, Boston University); see also Jihad 2.0: Social Media in the Next 
Evolution of Terrorist Recruitment: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on 
Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2015) (statement of 
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Foundation for Defense of Democracies).
    \22\Cristina Archetti, Terrorism, Communication and New Media: 
Explaining Radicalization in the Digital Age, Terrorism Research 
Institute (2015), http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/
article/view/401/html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Whereas the Center for Global Engagement's Twitter account 
has only garnered approximately 26,600 followers and sent 
approximately 12,000 tweets, pro-ISIS accounts (numbering 
anywhere between 46,000 and 90,000 in over 100 countries) 
collectively share an average of 133,422 tweets per day to a 
much larger audience of followers.\23\ Despite its rebranding 
and efforts to identify a successful counter-narrative, the 
Center for Global Engagement is still trying to develop a 
narrative as viral as those spread by extremist organizations 
such as ISIS.\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\J.M. Berger & Jonathon Morgan, The ISIS Twitter Census: 
Defining and describing the population of ISIS supporters on Twitter, 
The Brookings Institute (Mar. 2015), http://www.brookings.edu//media/
research/files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/
isis_twitter_census_berger_morgan.pdf; see also Global Engagement, 
Twitter, https://twitter.com/TheGEC (approximations as of June 8, 
2016).
    \24\William D. Casebeer & James A. Russell, Storytelling and 
Terrorism: Towards a Comprehensive `Counter-Narrative Strategy,' IV, 
Strategic Insights, Center for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval 
Postgraduate School (Mar. 2005), http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/
nps/casebeer_mar05.pdf; see also Michael Jacobson, Learning Counter-
Narrative Lessons from Cases of Terrorist Dropouts, The Washington 
Institute for Near East Policy (Jan. 2010), http://
www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/learning-counter-
narrative-lessons-from-cases-of-terrorist-dropouts; Naureen Chowdhury 
Fink & Jack Barclay, Mastering the Narrative: Counterterrorism 
Strategic Communication and the United Nations, Center on Global 
Counterterrorism (Feb. 2013), http://globalcenter.org/wp-content/
uploads/2013/03/Feb2013_CT_ StratComm.pdf; Alberto M. Fernandez, Here 
to Stay and Growing: Combating ISIS Propaganda Networks, The Brookings 
Institute (Oct. 2015), http://www.brookings.edu//media/research/files/
papers/2015/10/combating-isis-propaganda-fernandez/is-
propaganda_web_english.pdf.
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Requiring a national strategy to counter online radicalization

    In the 2011 ``Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering 
Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United 
States,'' this Administration committed to creating a strategy 
to counter online radicalization.\25\ The Administration has 
not yet provided such a strategy.\26\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \25\The Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners 
to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, The White House 20 
(2011), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/sip-final.pdf.
    \26\See generally Countering Online Radicalization in America, 
Bipartisan Policy Center 7 (Dec 2012), available at http://
cdn.bipartisanpolicy.org /wp-content/uploads/sites/default /files/
BPC%20 _Online%20Radicalization %20Report.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Accordingly, S. 2517, the Combat Terrorist Use of Social 
Media Act of 2016, requires the Administration to provide 
Congress with a comprehensive strategy aimed at aligning 
Federal efforts to disrupt and counter violent extremist 
messaging online. The bill also requires the Administration to 
provide a report to Congress that not only details the role 
social media plays in domestic and foreign radicalization, but 
also evaluates current government efforts to combat and counter 
terrorists' use of social media.
    The required national strategy to counter online 
radicalization should be informed by a study of a wide range of 
terrorists' and terrorist organizations' online recruitment 
efforts and, if possible, include organizations and individuals 
that adhere to a range of ideologies. While a national strategy 
will aim to counter all terrorist online radicalization, it 
should prioritize preventing violent extremism and terrorism 
that is inspired by Al Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates.\27\ 
In addition, in an effort to clarify ambiguous national 
security related terms of art, S. 2517 notably defines the term 
``radicalization'' for the first time in Federal statute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \27\See generally National Security Strategy, The White House 20 
(2015), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/
2015_national_security_strategy.pdf.
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    Finally, S. 2517 protects the First Amendment rights of 
Americans engaged in constitutionally-protected behavior while 
demanding the guidance necessary to build an effective, whole-
of-government approach to counter online radicalization. 
Included in both the report and evaluation is a requirement 
that the Administration assess the impact that efforts to 
combat terrorists' use of social media may have on the civil 
rights and civil liberties of United States persons not engaged 
in terrorist activities. The national strategy to counter 
online radicalization should be crafted to ensure the civil 
rights and civil liberties of United States persons are 
protected as required by current law.

                        III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Chairman Ron Johnson and Senator Joni Ernst introduced S. 
2517 on February 9, 2016, which was referred to the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Senator Cory 
Booker joined as a cosponsor on February 11, 2016.
    The Committee considered S. 2517 at a business meeting on 
February 10, 2016. Chairman Johnson offered one amendment to 
define ambiguous terms of art and strengthen civil rights and 
civil liberty protections for United States persons. The 
Committee adopted the amendment and ordered the bill, as 
amended, reported favorably, both by voice vote. Senators 
present for both the vote on the amendment and the vote on the 
bill were: Johnson, McCain, Portman, Paul, Lankford, Ayotte, 
Ernst, Sasse, Carper, McCaskill, Tester, Baldwin, Heitkamp, 
Booker, and Peters.
    Similar legislation, H.R. 3654, the Combat Terrorist Use of 
Social Media Act of 2015, passed the House of Representatives 
by voice vote and under suspension of the rules on December 16, 
2015.

        IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title

    This section provides the bill's short title, the ``Combat 
Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 2016.''

Section 2. Definitions

    This section defines ``appropriate congressional 
committees,'' ``domestic terrorism,'' ``international 
terrorism,'' ``radicalization,'' and ``United States person.''

Section 3. Report on strategy to combat terrorist use of social media

    Section 3 requires the President to transmit to the 
appropriate Congressional committees a report on terrorists' 
and terrorist organizations' use of social media and efforts of 
the United States to combat such use. The report is required to 
evaluate the role of social media in radicalization and assess 
the impact that efforts to combat terrorists' use of social 
media may have on the civil rights and civil liberties of 
United States persons not engaged in terrorist activities. The 
report is to be transmitted no later than 90 days after 
enactment of S. 2517.
    Section 3 also requires the President to submit to the 
appropriate Congressional committees an evaluation of the 
United States' efforts to combat the use of social media by 
terrorists and terrorist organizations and recommendations for 
improvements. This evaluation is required to assess the impact 
of such efforts on the civil rights and civil liberties of 
United States persons who are not engaged in terrorism. This 
evaluation is to be submitted within 180 days of enactment.
    The report and evaluation required under this section shall 
be submitted in an unclassified form, and may include a 
classified annex to protect intelligence sources and methods.

Section 4. Policy and comprehensive strategy to counter terrorists' and 
        terrorist organizations' use of social media

    Section 4 requires the President to submit a comprehensive 
strategy to counter the use of social media by terrorists and 
terrorist organizations. This strategy must be submitted within 
180 days of enactment, in an unclassified form, and may include 
a classified annex to protect intelligence sources and methods.

Section 5. Prohibition on New Regulatory Authority

    Section 5 makes clear that the bill does not provide the 
President or any Federal department or agency with authority to 
promulgate regulations or set standards for non-Federal 
entities.

                   V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs 
on state, local, or tribal governments.

             VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

                                                    March 18, 2016.
Hon. Ron Johnson,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. 
        Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 2517, the Combat 
Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 2016.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark 
Grabowicz.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.
    Enclosure.

S. 2517--Combat Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 2016

    S. 2517 would require the President, within 90 days of the 
bill's enactment, to submit to the Congress a report on 
terrorists' use of social media and an overview of current 
efforts to counter those activities. Within 180 days of the 
bill's enactment, the President would be required to submit to 
the Congress a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorists' 
use of social media and an evaluation of current efforts to 
combat such use of social media. Based on the cost of similar 
activities, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost 
less than $500,000 over the 2017-2021 period; such spending 
would be subject to the availability of appropriated amounts.
    Because enacting S. 2517 would not affect direct spending 
or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO 
estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net 
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
    S. 2517 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
    On January 13, 2016, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for 
H.R. 3654, the Combat Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 
2015, as passed by the House of Representatives on December 16, 
2015. The two pieces of legislation are similar and CBO's 
estimate of the budgetary effects are the same.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Mark Grabowicz. 
The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy 
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

       VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    Because this legislation would not repeal or amend any 
provision of current law, it would make no changes in existing 
law within the meaning of clauses (a) and (b) of paragraph 12 
of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate.

                                  [all]
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