Sponsors (2)
The bill preserves US international broadcasting capacity and eventual archival access while imposing lengthy domestic embargoes and fee/clearance requirements that restrict timely public access and scrutiny.
U.S. taxpayers and the American public indirectly: USAGM can continue producing and distributing international media, sustaining U.S. public diplomacy and countering foreign disinformation abroad.
Taxpayers, researchers, and nonprofits: Materials prepared for foreign audiences become accessible domestically after a 12-year embargo, improving historical transparency and public access to government-produced media.
Taxpayers and federal budget managers: Archivist fee and trust-fund rules create a mechanism to recover archival handling costs, reducing pressure on appropriations.
Taxpayers, journalists, researchers, nonprofits, and state governments: A 12-year embargo combined with a domestic dissemination ban (limited to on-site examination) restricts timely access to USAGM content, limiting media scrutiny and public oversight of government-produced foreign programming.
Nonprofits, researchers, and other users seeking archival materials: Charging fees and requiring rights clearances can make obtaining materials costly and administratively burdensome, deterring research and reuse.
Taxpayers and state/local governments: The policy creates an asymmetry where content intended for foreign audiences is withheld from domestic viewers for years, producing an inconsistent public record and complicating state or local uses of the material.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Renames statutory references to USAGM and its CEO, restates domestic dissemination limits, and clarifies archival access (12-year rule), format, fees, and reimbursement crediting.
Introduced December 12, 2025 by Andy Ogles · Last progress December 12, 2025
Rewrites and updates two existing federal statutes governing U.S. government information programs abroad to use the current agency names (the United States Agency for Global Media and its CEO) and to clarify how program materials are handled for archival access and agency accounting. It preserves the long‑standing ban on using these funds to influence U.S. public opinion and on routine domestic distribution, while adding explicit rules about when and how material is turned over to the National Archives and how reimbursement credits are treated.