II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 319 

To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended, to 

strengthen the conspicuous statement required on certain informational 

materials, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 12, 2021 

Mr. WICKER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, 

as amended, to strengthen the conspicuous statement 

required on certain informational materials, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Democracy Dies in 

5 Darkness Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) On February 18, 2020, the Department of 

2 State designated the China Daily as a foreign mis3 sion for the purposes of the Foreign Missions Act 

4 (22 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.). 

5 (2) Under its most recent registration state6 ment required under section 2 of the Foreign Agents 

7 Registration Act of 1938, as amended, the China 

8 Daily reported receiving $4,775,792.81 from its for9 eign principal between November 1, 2019, and April 

10 30, 2020, for the purpose of disseminating informa11 tional materials. 

12 (3) Between November 2016 and October 2020, 

13 the Washington Post received more than 

14 $4,600,000, and the Wall Street Journal received 

15 more than $6,000,000, for services, including adver16 tising and printing, as disclosed to the Department 

17 of Justice. 

18 (4) Beijing’s Global Megaphone, a special re19 port by Freedom House, states that ‘‘Beijing is 

20 gaining influence over crucial parts of some coun21 tries’ information infrastructure, as Chinese tech22 nology firms with close ties to the CCP build or ac23 quire content-dissemination platforms used by tens 

24 of millions of foreign news consumers.’’. 


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1 (5) On January 15, 2020, the Washington Post 

2 noted, ‘‘Aware that the audience for the China Daily 

3 might be limited, Beijing has adopted a practice it 

4 calls ‘borrowing the boat to reach the sea’ to place 

5 its content in advertorial China Watch supplements 

6 in respected newspapers . . .’’. 

7 (6) A 2019 report published by the School of 

8 Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins 

9 University details how China uses information cam10 paigns to communicate its capabilities, undermine 

11 the credibility of foreign political systems, and cor12 rect ‘‘misperceptions’’ by addressing negative report13 ing. 

14 (7) The 2018 annual report of the U.S.-China 

15 Economic and Security Review Commission rec16 ommends that Congress direct the Department of 

17 Justice to clarify labels required by the Foreign 

18 Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended, on in19 formational materials disseminated on behalf of for20 eign principals, such as the China Daily, so that 

21 those labels must appear prominently at the top of 

22 the first page of such materials. 

23 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

24 It is the sense of Congress that— 


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1 (1) foreign governments abuse paid supple2 ments, including paid supplements in the form of 

3 newspaper inserts, to propagate disinformation to 

4 audiences in the United States through the informa5 tion infrastructure of the United States; 

6 (2) the conspicuous statement required under 

7 section 4(b) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act 

8 of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 614(b)), plays an 

9 important role in upholding the freedom of speech 

10 by— 

11 (A) clearly distinguishing the author of in12 formational material for its readers; and 

13 (B) making the readers of certain informa14 tional materials aware that the informational 

15 material is paid content; and 

16 (3) regulations in existence on the date of en17 actment of this Act allow foreign principals to place 

18 the conspicuous statement required under section 

19 4(b) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 

20 1938, as amended in an area that is less likely to 

21 be viewed by readers, thereby defeating the purpose 

22 of the conspicuous statement. 


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1 SEC. 4. MODIFICATION OF FARA DISCLOSURE REQUIRE2 MENTS. 

3 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 1 of the Foreign Agents 

4 Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 611) 

5 is amended— 

6 (1) in subsection (p), by striking the period at 

7 the end and inserting a semi-colon; and 

8 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

9 ‘‘(q) The term ‘paid publication supplement’ means 

10 any informational material for which an agent of a foreign 

11 principal pays to be included as a part of, inserted within, 

12 or attached to, a covered publication based in the United 

13 States. 

14 ‘‘(r) The term ‘covered publication’— 

15 ‘‘(1) means a print or digital— 

16 ‘‘(A) news publication; 

17 ‘‘(B) magazine; 

18 ‘‘(C) journal; and 

19 ‘‘(D) informational publication; and 

20 ‘‘(2) includes a blog or social media website 

21 that runs advertisements.’’. 

22 (b) CONSPICUOUS STATEMENT.—Section 4 of the 

23 Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 

24 U.S.C. 614) is amended— 

25 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(b)’’; 


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1 (2) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by strik2 ing ‘‘The Attorney General’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject 

3 to paragraphs (2) through (4), the Attorney Gen4 eral’’; and 

5 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(2) A conspicuous statement required to be placed 

7 in an informational material under paragraph (1) shall— 

8 ‘‘(A) be clearly readable; 

9 ‘‘(B) have a font color that contrasts with the 

10 background color; and 

11 ‘‘(C) be placed at the top of the first page of 

12 the informational material. 

13 ‘‘(3) An informational material that is a paid publica14 tion supplement shall include the following disclosure as 

15 a part of the conspicuous statement required under para16 graph (1): ‘This supplement was paid for and prepared 

17 on behalf of [name of agent of foreign principal], an offi18 cial publication of [name of foreign principal].’. 

19 ‘‘(4) If a covered publication in which an informa20 tional material that is a paid publication supplement is 

21 published is not involved in the creation of the paid publi22 cation supplement, the disclosure required under para23 graph (3) shall include the following statement: ‘[Name 


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1 of covered publication] was not involved in the creation 

2 of this supplement.’ ’’. 

Æ 


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