Sponsors (2)
The bill preserves USAGM's ability to run and support international broadcasting (protecting U.S. information influence abroad) while restricting and delaying domestic access to those materials and shifting some archival costs onto users.
International audiences and U.S. public diplomacy: the USAGM CEO can continue producing and distributing U.S. international media abroad, sustaining U.S. information outreach and influence overseas.
Taxpayers and researchers: government-produced foreign programming becomes publicly accessible after a 12-year embargo, increasing long-term historical transparency and archive access.
Taxpayers: the Archivist fee and trust-fund rules create a mechanism to recover archival handling costs, which can reduce future appropriations pressure on federal budgets.
Americans (taxpayers, nonprofits): the 12-year embargo delays public access to government-produced foreign programming, limiting timely oversight and public accountability.
U.S. public and state-level actors: the ban on domestic dissemination and allowance only for in-person examination restricts exposure to current USAGM content and may impede media scrutiny and public debate.
Nonprofits and researchers: fees and rights-clearance requirements for accessing archived materials could make research costly or administratively burdensome, limiting use of the records.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Renames prior entities to USAGM/USAGM CEO, reaffirms foreign information dissemination authority, and adds archival and reimbursement rules including a 12-year Archivist access rule.
Official title: To clarify United States policy with respect to limitations on the domestic dissemination of program material about the United States that was prepared or disseminated by the United States Agency for Global Media or its component networks.
Introduced December 12, 2025 by Andy Ogles · Last progress December 12, 2025
Amends existing U.S. public diplomacy law to formally substitute the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its Chief Executive Officer (USAGM CEO) for previously named institutions and officials, and clarifies how USAGM may prepare and disseminate information abroad. It preserves the long-standing ban on using these materials to influence domestic public opinion while adding specific operational rules about archival access, Archivist custodial duties and fee rules, reimbursement crediting to USAGM appropriations, and a 12-year timeline for making certain materials available to the National Archives.