A bill to amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended to require news outlets that are agents of a foreign principal to provide adequate disclosure of their status.

Bill: 116-s-4207
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Harris, Kamala D. [D-CA]
Introduced: 2020-07-02
Policy area: International Affairs
Subjects: Government information and archives

News media and reporting

Political parties and affiliation

Public participation and lobbying
Latest action: action_date: 2020-07-02
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-07-02
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p>This bill requires&nbsp;a news outlet that is&nbsp;an agent of a foreign principal to provide certain disclosures. Specifically,&nbsp;any news outlet that is required to register as an agent of a foreign principal must&nbsp;include, in&nbsp;any transmission in or into the United States, that the transmission&nbsp;is made by an agent of a foreign principal and that additional infomation is on file with the Department of Justice. </p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4207 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 2, 2020 Ms. Harris (for herself, Mr. Cornyn , Mr. Blumenthal , and Mr. Sasse ) 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 require news outlets that are agents of a foreign principal to provide adequate disclosure of their status.

1. Disclosure of status by news outlets that are agents of a foreign principal Section 4(b) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended ( 22 U.S.C. 614(b) ) is amended by inserting after the first sentence the following: It shall be unlawful for any news or press service or association, newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication that is an agent of a foreign principal and required to register under the provisions of this Act to fail to include in any transmission in the United States mails or any transmission made by any means or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce (including a transmission by radio, television, or the internet) that is transmitted into the United States a conspicuous statement that the transmission is made by an agent of a foreign principal, and that additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia. .