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Rules Committee Print 118-1 PDF
Showing the text of H.R. 140, as ordered reported by the Committee on Oversight and Accountability
Text of H.R. 140 PDF
(as reported)
(as introduced and posted for original amendment deadline)
H. Rept. 118-5 PDF
Report from the Committee on Oversight and Accountability to accompany H.R. 140
COMMITTEE ACTION:
REPORTED BY A RECORD VOTE of 9-3 on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
FLOOR ACTION ON H. RES. 199:
Agreed to by record vote of 216-206 on March 8, 2023.
MANAGERS: Massie/McGovern
Structured rule for H.R. 140.
Waives all points of order against consideration of the bill.
Provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability or their respective designees.
Provides that the bill shall be considered as read.
Waives all points of order against the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 140 made in order as original text.
Makes in order only those further amendments printed in the Rules Committee report. Each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question.
Waives all points of order against the amendments printed in the report.
Provides one motion to recommit.
Closed rule for H.J. Res. 27.
Waives all points of order against consideration of the joint resolution.
Provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure or their respective designees.
Provides that the joint resolution shall be considered as read.
Waives all points of order against provisions in the joint resolution
Provides one motion to recommit.
Closed rule for S. 619.
Waives all points of order against consideration of the bill.
Provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence or their respective designees.
Provides that the bill shall be considered as read.
Waives all points of order against provisions in the bill.
Section 4 provides that section 7 of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1546) shall not apply to a concurrent resolution introduced during the first session of the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress pursuant to section 5 of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544) with respect to Syria.
Section 5 provides that if a veto message is laid before the House on House Joint Resolution 30, then after the message is read and the objections of the President are spread at large upon the Journal, further consideration of the veto message and the joint resolution shall be postponed until the legislative day of March 23, 2023; and on that legislative day, the House shall proceed to the constitutional question of reconsideration and dispose of such question without intervening motion.
| # | Version # | Sponsor(s) | Party | Summary | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Version 1 | Kuster (NH), Magaziner (RI) | Democrat | Adds combatting domestic or international terrorism to the list of legitimate law enforcement functions that federal employees are not prohibited from participating in. | Submitted |
| 2 | Version 1 | Rose (TN) | Republican | Requires mandatory annual training on the requirements of the underlying bill. | Made in Order |
| 3 | Version 1 | Blumenauer (OR) | Democrat | Amends the exceptions in the legislation to include employees exercising legitimate law enforcement functions to combat white supremacist domestic extremism. | Submitted |
| 4 | Version 1 | Schakowsky (IL) | Democrat | Adds an exception to the law enforcement reporting requirements for fraud targeting seniors. | Submitted |
| 5 | Version 1 | Schakowsky (IL) | Democrat | Adds an exception to the law enforcement reporting requirements for deceptive advertising of pharmaceuticals to children. | Submitted |
| 6 | Version 1 | Blumenauer (OR) | Democrat | Clarifies that this applies to the sharing of abortion information | Submitted |
| 7 | Version 1 | Casten (IL) | Democrat | Exempts law enforcement from the prohibition and subsequent reporting requirements in instances where they are acting to prevent or mitigate speech inciting violence. | Submitted |
| 8 | Version 2 | Rose (TN) | Republican | Revised Adds a findings section that states that inspectors general should not less than annually for the next seven years publicly report the number of complaints and tips received, the number of investigations opened, and statistics on how investigations were managed and their disposition by that inspector general related to compliance with the underlying bill and the amendments made by the underlying bill. | Made in Order |
| 9 | Version 1 | Perry (PA) | Republican | Prohibits censorship while a federal employee is engaged in activities for which official time is authorized. | Submitted |
| 10 | Version 1 | Perry (PA) | Republican | Adds “revocation of security clearance” to the list of penalties. | Submitted |
| 11 | Version 1 | Perry (PA) | Republican | Withdrawn Revises subparagraph (A) of the penalties section to read “disciplinary action consisting of removal and debarment from Federal employment for life.” | Withdrawn |
| 12 | Version 1 | Perry (PA) | Republican | Withdrawn Sets the civil penalty for all employees at $100,000. | Withdrawn |
| 13 | Version 1 | Perry (PA) | Republican | Adds a reporting requirement to the end of the bill. | Submitted |
| 14 | Version 1 | Allred (TX) | Democrat | Adds countering and preventing hate crimes, discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace harassment and retaliation to the list of exceptions. | Submitted |
| 15 | Version 1 | Allred (TX) | Democrat | Adds creating and issuing rules and regulations to the list of exceptions. | Submitted |
| 16 | Version 1 | Castor (FL) | Democrat | Provides for a children's safety exception to the prohibition. | Submitted |
| 17 | Version 1 | Castor (FL) | Democrat | Provides for a children's privacy exception to the prohibition. | Submitted |
| 18 | Version 1 | Allred (TX) | Democrat | Removes the addition of any disclaimer, information, or other alert to lawful speech being expressed on an interactive computer service from the definition of censorship. | Submitted |
| 19 | Version 1 | Payne, Jr. (NJ) | Democrat | Ensures that the bill cannot be used to delay or obstruct investigations into seditious conspiracy and the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol | Submitted |
| 20 | Version 1 | Ogles (TN) | Republican | Requires the report of the action to censor speech be made available to the public. | Submitted |
| 21 | Version 1 | Torres (NY) | Democrat | Clarifies that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any Federal officer or employee from exposing the false speech or lies of any other Federal officer or employee. | Submitted |
| 22 | Version 1 | Torres (NY) | Democrat | Clarifies no provision in this section shall be construed to prohibit Federal officials from sharing information or intelligence regarding foreign influence operations and cyberattacks. | Submitted |
| 23 | Version 1 | Torres (NY) | Democrat | Clarifies no provision of this section shall be construed to prevent the Federal Government from enforcing Federal laws that prohibit discrimination. | Submitted |
| 24 | Version 1 | Torres (NY) | Democrat | Clarifies the term ‘censor’ or ‘censorship’ shall not cover speech that incites a violent mob to invade the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn and election. | Submitted |
| 25 | Version 1 | Lynch (MA) | Democrat | Establishes a national security exception to clarify that federal employees may engage in lawful actions within their official authority for national security purposes. | Submitted |
| 26 | Version 2 | Miller (IL) | Republican | Revised Adds Federal contractors to the definition of covered employees. | Revised |
| 27 | Version 1 | Miller (IL) | Republican | Adds Federal grantees to the definition of covered persons. | Submitted |
| 28 | Version 1 | Miller (IL) | Republican | Adds each employee of any institution of higher education that receives Federal funds to the definition of covered employee. | Submitted |
| 29 | Version 1 | Case (HI) | Democrat | Exempts from this bill official work by federal employees to counter and prevent the spread of malign foreign propaganda. | Submitted |
| 30 | Version 1 | Schiff (CA) | Democrat | Creates additional exceptions for employees engaging in lawful actions within their official capacity for the purpose of exercising legitimate law enforcement functions regarding activities to combat terrorism, incitement of violence, and acts of insurrection. Acts of terrorism include acts of domestic terrorism motivated by all forms of bigotry, including anti-AAPI hate, homophobia and transphobia, antisemitism, and white nationalism. | Submitted |
| 31 | Version 1 | Escobar (TX) | Democrat | Strikes (B) from the DEFINITIONS section of the bill. | Submitted |
| 32 | Version 1 | Escobar (TX) | Democrat | Ensures that the bill will not interfere with the ability of private entities to moderate content posted or shared on their platform. | Submitted |
| 33 | Version 1 | Escobar (TX) | Democrat | Ensures that the bill will not prevent any federal employee from alerting or working with a private entity to remove manifestos and/or livestream videos of mass shooters as well as those of domestic and international terrorists from platforms. | Submitted |
| 34 | Version 3 | Raskin (MD) | Democrat | Revised Clarifies that federal employees would also be prohibited from harassing or coercing a private entity to carry speech or speakers. | Revised |
| 35 | Version 1 | Raskin (MD) | Democrat | Adds an exception for federal employee action to prevent insurrectionary attacks on the U.S. Capitol and associated threats to Members of Congress, congressional staff, U.S. Capitol Police Officers, and other employees. | Submitted |
| 36 | Version 1 | Payne, Jr. (NJ) | Democrat | Ensures that the bill will not supersede terms set out in any collective bargaining agreement with a federal employee labor organization. | Submitted |
| 37 | Version 1 | Raskin (MD) | Democrat | Applies the prohibition beyond speech on interactive computer services to include speech in or on other forms of media like newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. | Submitted |
| 38 | Version 1 | Casten (IL) | Democrat | Clarifies the rules of construction to ensure that nothing in the act shall be construed to 1) prohibit a Federal employee from enforcing nondiscrimination laws and 2) prevent a Federal employee from being able to discourage speech that is misinformation intended to incite a riot. | Submitted |
| 39 | Version 1 | Takano (CA) | Democrat | Expands the exception for federal employees to engage in lawful action for the purpose of identifying and combatting speech intended to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred or violence against a group or class of persons on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics (including intersex traits), ethnicity, disability, or national origin. | Submitted |
| 40 | Version 1 | Moskowitz (FL) | Democrat | Clarifies that nothing in the bill prohibits a federal employee from engaging in lawful actions within their official authority to prevent the incitement of violence, specifically from neo-Nazi groups. | Submitted |
| 41 | Version 2 | Tlaib (MI) | Democrat | Revised Adds "boycotts of any kind" in definition of "lawful speech." | Revised |
| 42 | Version 2 | Tlaib (MI) | Democrat | Revised Strikes the penalties section of the bill. | Revised |
| 43 | Version 3 | Tlaib (MI) | Democrat | Revised Adds "false reporting" to the the list of prohibitions covered by the bill. | Revised |
| 44 | Version 1 | Gottheimer (NJ) | Democrat | Clarifies nothing in this Act shall apply to employees denouncing incidents of incitement of violence against government or elected officials | Submitted |
| 45 | Version 1 | Buck (CO) | Republican | Adds a findings section stating that Big Tech platforms use their market power to silence free speech online. | Submitted |
| 46 | Version 1 | McGovern (MA) | Democrat | Ensures that nothing in this act will prohibit a federal employee from advocating against the banning of books (specifically, books on topics such as communities of color, the history of slavery and/or racism in the United States, and books with LGBTQI+ characters). | Submitted |
| 47 | Version 1 | Buck (CO) | Republican | Adds a GAO study and report to Congress examining how Big Tech platforms use their market power to silence free speech online. This report shall include legislative solutions. | Submitted |
| 48 | Version 1 | Foxx (NC) | Republican | Ensures that federal employees entering into collective bargaining agreements using taxpayer funded time (Section 7131) are prohibited from engaging in censorship of private entities. | Made in Order |
| 49 | Version 3 | Ramirez (IL) | Democrat | Revised Prioritizes election security and voting rights for the Latino community by ensuring that Federal employees are empowered to take action against mis-and disinformation on social media platforms. | Revised |
| 50 | Version 2 | Wasserman Schultz (FL), Frankel (FL), Manning (NC), Meng (NY), Schneider (IL) | Democrat | Revised Adds exceptions to allow for the reporting of content that threatens, promotes violence, or dangerous rhetoric based on a person or group's religion, race, color, national origin, or other protected class. Adds exceptions to allow for the reporting of posts, comments, media, or live streams that show, encourage, or facilitate the commission of a criminal offense. | Revised |
| 51 | Version 1 | Goldman (NY) | Democrat | Ensures the ability of law enforcement to act to protect the integrity of our elections through fighting foreign election interference. | Submitted |
| 52 | Version 1 | Jackson Lee (TX) | Democrat | Strikes section 2(e). | Made in Order |
| 53 | Version 1 | Porter (CA) | Democrat | Clarifies that federal employees may engage in lawful actions within their official authority to facilitate the distribution of scientific or technical information that has been subject to the principles of scientific research and that has not been altered based on any political purpose. | Submitted |
| 54 | Version 2 | Comer (KY) | Republican | MANAGER’S AMENDMENT Revised Makes technical edits and adds a conforming clarification for the authorities of the Office of the Special Counsel to ensure that the Act's monetary civil penalties under new section 7382(c)(2) can be fully enforced. | Made in Order |
| 55 | Version 2 | Jackson Lee (TX) | Democrat | Revised Requires the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to determine if there are any unintended consequences that would harm our intelligence agencies directives or our national security interests from carrying out this Act or any such amendment before the implementation of this Act. | Revised |
| 56 | Version 2 | Clyde (GA) | Republican | Late Revised Requires the Attorney General to submit an annual report to Congress evaluating the compliance of the Federal Government with the Protecting Free Speech from Government Interference Act. This amendment provides transparency and insight into any potential violations of the Act by government agencies or employees, and sunsets after 10 years. | Made in Order |
| 57 | Version 1 | Houlahan (PA), Mace (SC) | Bi-Partisan | Late Adds sexual assault to the list of exceptions in the bill. | Submitted |
| 58 | Version 2 | Good (VA), Brecheen (OK) | Republican | Late Revised Clarifies enforcement of obscene matters not protected by the First Amendment. | Made in Order |
| 59 | Version 2 | Bishop (NC) | Republican | Late Revised Ensures that law enforcement can only take action against unlawful speech. | Made in Order |
| 60 | Version 1 | Crockett (TX) | Democrat | Late Ensures that nothing in the bill would prohibit private entities/individuals from creating, maintaining, and/or enforcing their private terms of service/user agreements. This includes agreements that would terminate an individual's ability to use the services for having violated the terms of service/user agreements. | Submitted |
| 61 | Version 1 | Scholten (MI) | Democrat | Late Requires DOJ to issue a report within 60 days analyzing if this bill establishes additional free speech protections not provided for by the First Amendment and if so, if these protections would substantially impact the federal government’s efforts to hunt down extremism of all kinds. | Submitted |
| 62 | Version 1 | Scholten (MI) | Democrat | Late Directs the Department of Justice and Office of Special Counsel to issue a report to Congress within 60 days of implementation evaluating whether enforcement of this Act would infringe on the right to religious expression. | Submitted |
| 63 | Version 1 | Ogles (TN) | Republican | Late Revises the disciplinary action consisting of removal, reduction in grade, debarment from federal employment for a period not to exceed 10 years, suspension, or reprimand. | Made in Order |
| 64 | Version 1 | Ogles (TN) | Republican | Late Revises the civil penalty for senior government officials to be $50,000. | Made in Order |
Motion by Mr. McGovern to amend the rule and make in order amendment #33 to H.R. 140, offered by Representative Escobar, which would ensure that the bill will not prevent any federal employee from alerting or working with a private entity to remove manifestos and/or livestream videos of mass shooters as well as those of domestic and international terrorists from platforms. Defeated: 3-9
Motion by Mr. McGovern to amend the rule and make in order amendment #46 to H.R. 140, offered by Representative McGovern, which would ensure that nothing in this act will prohibit a federal employee from advocating against the banning of books (specifically, books on topics such as communities of color, the history of slavery and/or racism in the United States, and books with LGBTQI+ characters). Defeated: 3-9
Motion by Ms. Scanlon to amend the rule and make in order amendment #30 to H.R. 140, offered by Representative Schiff, which would create additional exceptions for employees engaging in lawful actions within their official capacity for the purpose of exercising legitimate law enforcement functions regarding activities to combat terrorism, incitement of violence, and acts of insurrection. Acts of terrorism include acts of domestic terrorism motivated by all forms of bigotry, including anti-AAPI hate, homophobia and transphobia, antisemitism, and white nationalism. Defeated: 3-9
Motion by Ms. Leger Fernández to amend the rule and make in order amendment #35 to H.R. 140, offered by Representative Raskin, which would add an exception for federal employee action to prevent insurrectionary attacks on the U.S. Capitol and associated threats to Members of Congress, congressional staff, U.S. Capitol Police Officers, and other employees. Defeated: 3-9
Motion by Mr. Massie to report the rule. Adopted: 9–3
