I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 990 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require broadcasting 
stations, providers of cable and satellite television, and online platforms 
to make reasonable efforts to ensure that political advertisements are 
not purchased by a foreign national. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 11, 2021 
Mr. GOLDEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 
require broadcasting stations, providers of cable and sat-
ellite television, and online platforms to make reasonable 
efforts to ensure that political advertisements are not 
purchased by a foreign national. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Block Foreign-Funded 
Political Ads Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. PREVENTING CONTRIBUTIONS, EXPENDITURES, 
INDEPENDENT 
EXPENDITURES, 
AND 
DIS-
BURSEMENTS FOR ELECTIONEERING COM-
MUNICATIONS BY FOREIGN NATIONALS IN 
THE FORM OF ONLINE ADVERTISING. 
Section 319 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30121) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(c) RESPONSIBILITIES OF BROADCAST STATIONS, 
PROVIDERS OF CABLE AND SATELLITE TELEVISION, AND 
ONLINE PLATFORMS.— 
‘‘(1) RESPONSIBILITIES DESCRIBED.—Each tel-
evision or radio broadcast station, provider of cable 
or satellite television, or online platform shall make 
reasonable efforts to ensure that communications de-
scribed in section 318(a) and made available by such 
station, provider, or platform are not purchased by 
a foreign national, directly or indirectly. For pur-
poses of the previous sentence, a station, provider, 
or online platform shall not be considered to have 
made reasonable efforts under this paragraph in the 
case of the availability of a communication unless 
the station, provider, or online platform directly in-
quires from the individual or entity making such 
purchase whether the purchase is to be made by a 
foreign national, directly or indirectly. 
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‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULES FOR DISBURSEMENT PAID 
WITH
CREDIT
CARD.—For purposes of paragraph 
(1), a television or radio broadcast station, provider 
of cable or satellite television, or online platform 
shall be considered to have made reasonable efforts 
under such paragraph in the case of a purchase of 
the availability of a communication which is made 
with a credit card if— 
‘‘(A) the individual or entity making such 
purchase is required, at the time of making 
such purchase, to disclose the credit verification 
value of such credit card; and 
‘‘(B) the billing address associated with 
such credit card is located in the United States 
or, in the case of a purchase made by an indi-
vidual who is a United States citizen living out-
side of the United States, the individual pro-
vides the television or radio broadcast station, 
provider of cable or satellite television, or online 
platform with the United States mailing ad-
dress the individual uses for voter registration 
purposes. 
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.— 
‘‘(A) ONLINE
PLATFORM.—For purposes 
of this subsection, the term ‘online platform’ 
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means any public-facing website, web applica-
tion, or digital application (including a social 
network, ad network, or search engine) which— 
‘‘(i) sells qualified political advertise-
ments; and 
‘‘(ii) has 50,000,000 or more unique 
monthly United States visitors or users for 
a majority of months during the preceding 
12 months. 
‘‘(B) QUALIFIED
POLITICAL
ADVERTISE-
MENT.—For purposes of subparagraph (A), the 
term ‘qualified political advertisement’ means 
any advertisement (including search engine 
marketing, display advertisements, video adver-
tisements, native advertisements, and sponsor-
ships) that— 
‘‘(i) is made by or on behalf of a can-
didate; or 
‘‘(ii) communicates a message relating 
to any political matter of national impor-
tance, including— 
‘‘(I) a candidate; 
‘‘(II) any election to Federal of-
fice; or 
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‘‘(III) a national legislative issue 
of public importance.’’. 
Æ 
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