[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 189 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 189

Requiring foreign state media outlets with credentialed members in the 
     House news media galleries to comply with the Foreign Agents 
 Registration Act by prohibiting the admission into such galleries of 
 reporters and correspondents who are representatives of such outlets 
 who are not in compliance with the requirements of such Act, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 1, 2023

 Mr. Bergman submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                         the Committee on Rules

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Requiring foreign state media outlets with credentialed members in the 
     House news media galleries to comply with the Foreign Agents 
 Registration Act by prohibiting the admission into such galleries of 
 reporters and correspondents who are representatives of such outlets 
 who are not in compliance with the requirements of such Act, and for 
                            other purposes.

Whereas freedom of the press is essential for a functioning democracy, which is 
        why Congress grants unparalleled access on Capitol Hill to journalists 
        who are credentialed members of the Congressional Media Galleries;
Whereas there is broad bipartisan agreement, however, that media outlets owned 
        or controlled by foreign state actors cannot be afforded the same 
        privileges as traditional media;
Whereas while the extraordinary access inside Capitol Hill granted to 
        credentialed members of the media helps facilitate accurate reporting to 
        the American public, it is also the kind of access coveted by foreign 
        powers seeking sensitive information from inside Congress, and those 
        with state-sponsored media outlets currently can easily obtain such 
        access, even if they openly flout United States laws;
Whereas in order to effectively safeguard the national security interests of the 
        United States, foreign state-sponsored media outlets must be required to 
        strictly comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) 
        and other United States laws as a prerequisite for their journalists to 
        receive credentials in the Congressional Media Galleries;
Whereas several foreign countries with reported histories of spying on 
        Americans, such as Russia, Qatar, and China, own and control state-
        sponsored media outlets whose journalists in recent years have been 
        credentialed by the House and Senate Media Galleries;
Whereas over the past decade, the People's Republic of China, Russia, and the 
        State of Qatar have aggressively deployed their espionage forces against 
        United States Government agencies and government officials, as well as 
        targeting thousands of United States businesses and Americans perceived 
        to be opponents or dissidents of their regimes;
Whereas in January and February 2023, for example, the People's Republic of 
        China brazenly launched a surveillance balloon over the continental 
        United States, which was part of a repeated pattern by China, and as a 
        result of China's long history of targeting Americans, the Department of 
        Justice has indicted dozens of entities affiliated with the Chinese 
        Government for cyberattacks and surveillance, and the United States 
        Government in July 2020 took the extraordinary measure of closing the 
        Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas, because of espionage operations 
        being carried out in the Mission;
Whereas despite China's extensive surveillance operations targeting Americans, 
        media outlets registered as Chinese agents under FARA had over two dozen 
        journalists who had received credentials from the Congressional Media 
        Galleries in the 118th Congress, and another 16 journalists received 
        credentials in the 118th Congress through media outlets reportedly owned 
        or controlled by senior members of the Chinese Communist Party, 
        including two journalists who received credentials through the China 
        News Service, which is not registered under FARA, but which was 
        designated in June 2020 by the Department of States as a ``foreign 
        mission'' because the outlet was ``effectively controlled by the Chinese 
        government'';
Whereas the State of Qatar has reportedly engaged in extensive espionage and 
        surveillance operations to target American political leaders who have 
        been up for consideration for top Cabinet positions in both the Trump 
        and Biden administrations, as well as numerous senior Members of 
        Congress, and in 2018, for example, Qatari agents reportedly helped 
        generate multiple high-profile media articles based on hacked materials 
        to target then-Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce 
        because of his committee's support of the Hamas Sanctions Bill, which 
        was opposed by the State of Qatar;
Whereas the State of Qatar's state-sponsored media company, Al Jazeera, 
        reportedly also was deployed to carry out surveillance operations 
        targeting young pro-Israel activists at several nonprofit organizations 
        based in Washington, DC;
Whereas despite the State of Qatar's and Al Jazeera's extensive surveillance 
        operations targeting Americans, at least 136 Al Jazeera journalists 
        received credentials from the House and Senate Media Galleries in the 
        118th Congress, dramatically more than the 82 New York Times journalists 
        who had received such credentials;
Whereas Al Jazeera journalists were afforded the privilege of credentials, even 
        though the Department of Justice had determined since at least 2018 that 
        Al Jazeera's parent entity, the Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN), and its 
        various subsidiaries qualify as foreign agents of Qatar under FARA, and 
        in a September 14, 2020, letter, the Department of Justice stated, 
        ``AJMN is an agent of the Government of Qatar under FARA'', and also 
        stated, ``AJMN and its affiliates are controlled and funded by the 
        Government of Qatar'' and that the ``Government of Qatar has ultimate 
        authority through its control of AJMN's Board of Directors and AJMN's 
        budget [and] exercises ultimate control of AJMN.'';
Whereas in order to preserve the extraordinary access provided to credentialed 
        journalists in the Congressional Media Galleries, it is imperative to 
        limit the number of credentials available to reporters affiliated with 
        any given foreign state-sponsored media outlet;
Whereas journalists with foreign state-sponsored media outlets should only be 
        eligible to apply for credentials to the Congressional Media Galleries 
        after they have undergone background checks performed by the Federal 
        Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and
Whereas this legislation aims to enhance the national security of the United 
        States by limiting the access of foreign state-sponsored media outlets 
        to credentials from the House Media Galleries and by requiring the FBI 
        to perform background checks of journalists with those outlets in order 
        to be eligible to receive such credentials: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,

SECTION 1. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION OF FOREIGN REPORTERS AND 
              CORRESPONDENTS INTO HOUSE NEWS MEDIA GALLERIES.

    Rule VI of the Rules of the House of Representatives is amended by 
adding at the end the following new clause:
    ``4.(a) Under the regulations prescribed under clause 2 or clause 
3, a reporter or correspondent who is a representative of a 
noncompliant foreign state media outlet shall not be admitted into the 
portion of the gallery described in clause 2 or clause 3 (as the case 
may be). In this paragraph, a `noncompliant foreign state media outlet' 
means a foreign state media outlet which either--
            ``(1) is not registered as the agent of a foreign principal 
        under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended 
        (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) notwithstanding that the outlet is 
        designated as a foreign mission by the Secretary of State or is 
        determined by the Attorney General to be an agent of a foreign 
        principal for purposes of such Act; or
            ``(2) is registered as the agent of a foreign principal 
        under such Act but is not otherwise in compliance with the 
        applicable requirements of such Act.
    ``(b) Under the regulations prescribed under clause 2 or clause 3, 
not more than 10 reporters or correspondents who are representatives of 
the same foreign state media outlet, including representatives of any 
outlet which is owned or controlled by the same foreign state media 
outlet, may be admitted into the portion of the gallery described in 
clause 2 or 3 (as the case may be).
    ``(c) Under the regulations prescribed under clause 2 or clause 3, 
a reporter or correspondent who is a representative of a foreign state 
media outlet shall not be admitted into the portion of the gallery 
described in clause 2 or 3 (as the case may be) unless the reporter or 
correspondent certifies to the Speaker that--
            ``(1) during the 6-month period which ends on the date the 
        reporter or correspondent is to be admitted, the reporter or 
        correspondent has undergone a background check conducted by the 
        Federal Bureau of Investigation; and
            ``(2) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the basis of 
        the background check, has determined that the admission of the 
        reporter or correspondent to such portion of the gallery will 
        not pose a threat to the security of the United States.
    ``(d) In this clause, the term `foreign state media outlet' means a 
media outlet which is owned, funded, or controlled by the government of 
a foreign country or instrumentality thereof, a member of the family of 
the ruling monarch of a foreign country, or a foreign political 
party.''.
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