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tion described in subparagraph (A) by the At-
torney General. 
(2) EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General 
shall not include in a report submitted under 
subsection (a) any information protected from 
disclosure by rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of 
Criminal Procedure or any Federal criminal 
statute. 
(B) EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN OTHER IN-
FORMATION.—The Attorney General may deter-
mine that the following information shall not be 
included in a report submitted under subsection 
(a): 
(i) Any information that is privileged. 
(ii) Any information concerning an 
ongoing investigation. 
(iii) Any information concerning a 
criminal or civil proceeding conducted 
under seal. 
(iv) Any other nonpublic information 
that the Attorney General determines the 
disclosure of which could reasonably be ex-
pected to infringe on the rights of any in-
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dividual or adversely affect the integrity of 
a pending or future criminal investigation. 
(c) REPORT MADE PUBLIC.—On the date that the 
Attorney General submits the report under subsection (a), 
the Attorney General shall also make the report publicly 
available through the Internet and other appropriate 
means. 
Subtitle C—Inadmissibility and De-
portability of Aliens Engaging 
in 
Improper 
Election 
Inter-
ference 
SEC. 
321. 
INADMISSIBILITY 
AND 
DEPORTABILITY 
OF 
ALIENS 
ENGAGING 
IN 
IMPROPER 
INTER-
FERENCE IN UNITED STATES ELECTIONS. 
(a) INADMISSIBILITY.—Section 212(a)(3) of the Im-
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(H) IMPROPER
INTERFERENCE
IN
A 
UNITED STATES ELECTION.—Any alien who a 
consular officer, the Secretary of Homeland Se-
curity, the Secretary of State, or the Attorney 
General knows, or has reasonable grounds to 
believe, is seeking admission to the United 
States to engage in improper interference in a 
United States election, or has engaged in im-
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proper interference in a United States election, 
is inadmissible.’’. 
(b) DEPORTABILITY.—Section 237(a) of such Act (8 
U.S.C. 1227(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(8) IMPROPER INTERFERENCE IN A UNITED 
STATES ELECTION.—Any alien who has engaged, is 
engaged, or at any time after admission engages in 
improper interference in a United States election is 
deportable.’’. 
(c) DEFINITION.—Section 101(a) of such Act (8 
U.S.C. 1101(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(53) The term ‘improper interference in a 
United States election’ means conduct by an alien 
that— 
‘‘(A)(i) violates Federal criminal, voting 
rights, or campaign finance law; or 
‘‘(ii) is performed by any person acting as 
an agent of or on behalf of a foreign govern-
ment or criminal enterprise; and 
‘‘(B) includes any covert, fraudulent, de-
ceptive, or unlawful act or attempted act, un-
dertaken with the purpose or effect of under-
mining public confidence in election processes
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or institutions, or influencing, undermining con-
fidence in, or altering the result or reported re-
sult of, a general or primary Federal, State, or 
local election or caucus, including— 
‘‘(i) the campaign of a candidate; or 
‘‘(ii) a ballot measure, including an 
amendment, a bond issue, an initiative, a 
recall, a referral, or a referendum.’’. 
Subtitle 
D—Notifying 
States 
of 
Disinformation Campaigns by 
Foreign Nationals 
SEC. 331. NOTIFYING STATES OF DISINFORMATION CAM-
PAIGNS BY FOREIGN NATIONALS. 
(a) REQUIRING DISCLOSURE.—If the Federal Elec-
tion Commission makes a determination that a foreign na-
tional has initiated or has attempted to initiate a 
disinformation campaign targeted at an election for public 
office held in a State, the Commission shall notify the 
State involved of the determination not later than 30 days 
after making the determination. 
(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section the term ‘‘foreign 
national’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
319(b) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 
U.S.C. 30121(b)).
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Subtitle E—Prohibiting Use of 
Deepfakes in Election Campaigns 
SEC. 341. PROHIBITION ON DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALLY 
DECEPTIVE AUDIO OR VISUAL MEDIA PRIOR 
TO ELECTION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Federal Election 
Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.), as 
amended by section 203, is further amended by adding 
at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 325. PROHIBITION ON DISTRIBUTION OF MATERI-
ALLY DECEPTIVE MEDIA PRIOR TO ELEC-
TION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-
sections (b) and (c), a person, political committee, or other 
entity shall not, within 60 days of a election for Federal 
office at which a candidate for elective office will appear 
on the ballot, distribute, with actual malice, materially de-
ceptive audio or visual media of the candidate with the 
intent to injure the candidate’s reputation or to deceive 
a voter into voting for or against the candidate. 
‘‘(b) EXCEPTION.— 
‘‘(1) REQUIRED
LANGUAGE.—The prohibition 
in subsection (a) does not apply if the audio or vis-
ual media includes—
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‘‘(A) 
a 
disclosure 
stating: 
‘‘This 
lllll has been manipulated.’’; and 
‘‘(B) filled in the blank in the disclosure 
under subparagraph (A), the term ‘image’, 
‘video’, or ‘audio’, as most accurately describes 
the media. 
‘‘(2) VISUAL
MEDIA.—For visual media, the 
text of the disclosure shall appear in a size that is 
easily readable by the average viewer and no smaller 
than the largest font size of other text appearing in 
the visual media. If the visual media does not in-
clude any other text, the disclosure shall appear in 
a size that is easily readable by the average viewer. 
For visual media that is video, the disclosure shall 
appear for the duration of the video. 
‘‘(3) AUDIO-ONLY MEDIA.—If the media con-
sists of audio only, the disclosure shall be read in a 
clearly spoken manner and in a pitch that can be 
easily heard by the average listener, at the beginning 
of the audio, at the end of the audio, and, if the 
audio is greater than 2 minutes in length, inter-
spersed within the audio at intervals of not greater 
than 2 minutes each. 
‘‘(c) INAPPLICABILITY TO CERTAIN ENTITIES.—This 
section does not apply to the following:
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‘‘(3) BURDEN OF PROOF.—In any civil action 
alleging a violation of this section, the plaintiff shall 
bear the burden of establishing the violation through 
clear and convincing evidence. 
‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—This section shall 
not be construed to alter or negate any rights, obligations, 
or immunities of an interactive service provider under sec-
tion 230 of title 47, United States Code. 
‘‘(f) MATERIALLY DECEPTIVE AUDIO
OR VISUAL 
MEDIA DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘materially 
deceptive audio or visual media’ means an image or an 
audio or video recording of a candidate’s appearance, 
speech, or conduct that has been intentionally manipulated 
in a manner such that both of the following conditions 
are met: 
‘‘(1) The image or audio or video recording 
would falsely appear to a reasonable person to be 
authentic. 
‘‘(2) The image or audio or video recording 
would cause a reasonable person to have a fun-
damentally different understanding or impression of 
the expressive content of the image or audio or video 
recording than that person would have if the person 
were hearing or seeing the unaltered, original 
version of the image or audio or video recording.’’.
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(b) CRIMINAL PENALTIES.—Section 309(d)(1) of the 
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 
30109(d)(1)), as amended by section 103, is further 
amended by adding at the end the following new subpara-
graph: 
‘‘(G) Any person who knowingly and will-
fully commits a violation of section 325 shall be 
fined not more than $100,000, imprisoned not 
more than 5 years, or both.’’. 
(c) EFFECT
ON DEFAMATION ACTION.—For pur-
poses of an action for defamation, a violation of section 
325 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as 
added by subsection (a), shall constitute defamation per 
se. 
Subtitle F—Assessment of Exemp-
tion of Registration Require-
ments Under FARA for Reg-
istered Lobbyists 
SEC. 351. ASSESSMENT OF EXEMPTION OF REGISTRATION 
REQUIREMENTS 
UNDER 
FARA 
FOR 
REG-
ISTERED LOBBYISTS. 
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
States shall conduct and submit to Congress an assess-
ment of the implications of the exemption provided under
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the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended 
(22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) for agents of foreign principals 
who are also registered lobbyists under the Lobbying Dis-
closure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and shall 
include in the assessment an analysis of the extent to 
which revisions in such Acts might mitigate the risk of 
foreign government money influencing elections or political 
processes in the United States. 
TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS 
PROVISIONS 
SEC. 401. EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROVISIONS. 
Each provision of this Act and each amendment made 
by a provision of this Act shall take effect on the effective 
date provided under this Act for such provision or such 
amendment without regard to whether or not the Federal 
Election Commission, the Attorney General, or any other 
person has promulgated regulations to carry out such pro-
vision or such amendment. 
SEC. 402. SEVERABILITY. 
If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 
by this Act, or the application of a provision of this Act 
or an amendment made by this Act to any person or cir-
cumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 
of this Act, and the application of the provisions to any
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person or circumstance, shall not be affected by the hold-
ing. 
Passed the House of Representatives October 23, 
2019. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 4617 
AN ACT 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 
1971 to clarify the obligation to report acts of 
foreign election influence and require implemen-
tation of compliance and reporting systems by 
Federal campaigns to detect and report such 
acts, and for other purposes.