[House Report 117-648]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


117th Congress    }                                    {        Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session       }                                    {       117-648

======================================================================


 
RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY REQUESTING THE PRESIDENT TO PROVIDE TO THE HOUSE 
      OF REPRESENTATIVES CERTAIN DOCUMENTS OR RECORDS RELATING TO 
       COORDINATION BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES AND THE BIDEN 
 ADMINISTRATION ON INFORMATION, CENSORSHIP, AND CENSORSHIP MEETINGS IN 
      ORDER TO SUPPRESS OR DEPLATFORM PERSONS OR INFORMATION THE 
      ADMINISTRATION VIEWS AS MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION, AND 
  MALINFORMATION ON COVI-19, HUNTER BIDEN, AND ELECTIONS, AND CERTAIN 
  DOCUMENTS OR RECORDS RELATING TO PLANS TO PROVIDE GRANT FUNDING TO 
CONSORTIUMS, INCLUDING THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE, IN THE UNITED 
                                 STATES

                                _______
                                

 December 16, 2022.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

        Mr. Pallone, from the Committee on Energy and Commerce, 
                        submitted the following

                             ADVERSE REPORT

                             together with

                             MINORITY VIEWS

                      [To accompany H. Res. 1476]

    The Committee on Energy and Commerce, to whom was referred 
the resolution (H. Res. 1476) of inquiry requesting the 
President to provide to the House of Representatives certain 
documents or records relating to coordination between social 
media companies and the Biden administration on information, 
censorship, and censorship meetings in order to suppress or 
deplatform persons or information the administration views as 
misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation on COVID-19, 
Hunter Biden, and elections, and certain documents or records 
relating to plans to provide grant funding to consortiums, 
including the Democratic National Committee, in the United 
States, having considered the same, reports unfavorably thereon 
without amendment and recommends that the resolution not be 
agreed to.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                     Page
   I. Purpose and Summary.............................................  2
  II. Background and Need for the Legislation.........................  2
 III. Committee Hearings..............................................  3
  IV. Committee Consideration.........................................  3
   V. Committee Votes.................................................  3
  VI. Oversight Findings..............................................  6
 VII. New Budget Authority, Entitlement Authority, and Tax Expenditure  6
VIII. Federal Mandates Statement......................................  6
  IX. Statement of General Performance Goals and Objectives...........  6
   X. Duplication of Federal Programs.................................  6
  XI. Committee Cost Estimate.........................................  6
 XII. Earmarks, Limited Tax Benefits, and Limited Tariff Benefits.....  6
XIII. Advisory Committee Statement....................................  7
 XIV. Applicability to Legislative Branch.............................  7
  XV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation..................  7
 XVI. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported...........  7
XVII. Minority Views..................................................  8

                         I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

    H. Res. 1476 requests the President to furnish to the House 
of Representatives records either generated or received by the 
office of the President related to censorship and social media 
companies, including records that relate to the Election 
Integrity Partnership, efforts to censor information, fact-
checks, flagging incidents or emerging narratives for social 
media companies, countering election misinformation, labeling 
content, flagging Uniform Resource Locators, labeling news or 
opinion organizations, platform interventions, content 
moderation, far-right influencers, incident reports for tweets 
or retweets, spreading misinformation or disinformation on 
Hunter Biden or Dr. Anthony Fauci, and repeat spreaders of 
election misinformation. It also requests records related to 
certain National Science Foundation grants to Stanford and the 
University of Washington, meetings or agreements with certain 
private entities, and communications on misinformation or 
disinformation concerning certain individual social media 
users.

                II. BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    Under the Rules and precedents of the House of 
Representatives, a resolution of inquiry is a means by which 
the House requests information from the President of the United 
States or the head of one of the executive departments. 
Resolutions of inquiry have no legal force and thus compliance 
by the Executive Branch with the House's request for 
information is voluntary. The Rules require the committee to 
which the resolution is referred to act on the resolution 
within 14 legislative days, or a motion to discharge the 
committee from consideration is considered privileged on the 
floor of the House.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\House rule XIII, clause 7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    H. Res. 1476 requests that the President provide to the 
House of Representatives certain documents or records relating 
to coordination between social media companies and the Biden 
administration on information, censorship, and censorship 
meetings in order to suppress or deplatform persons or 
information the administration views as misinformation, 
disinformation, and malinformation on COVID-19, Hunter Biden, 
and elections, and certain documents or records relating to 
plans to provide grant funding to consortiums, including the 
Democratic National Committee, in the United States.
    The Committee reported this resolution of inquiry adversely 
to the House. Much of the resolution centers on unsubstantiated 
and disproven information about the Election Integrity 
Partnership, a research collaborative founded in 2020 by 
Stanford University and the University of Washington, among 
others. The resolution suggests a vast conspiracy where this 
nonpartisan project, created to counter disinformation about 
election processes or procedures, is claimed to operate as an 
agent of the current administration seeking to remove opposing 
viewpoints from social media platforms. The innuendo about the 
Election Integrity Partnership, its funding, and the 
stakeholders it has engaged has been thoroughly and 
transparently addressed by the Election Integrity Partnership 
itself\2\ and an independent fact checker.\3\ And the 
additional topics this resolution seeks to examine are equally 
unsupported in fact.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\Election Integrity Partnership, A Statement from the Election 
Integrity Partnership (Oct. 5, 2022) (https://www.eipartnership.net/
blog/a-statement-from-the-election-integrity-partnership).
    \3\PolitiFact, Partnership targeted election misinformation, no 
conservatives (Oct. 11, 2022) (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/
2022/oct/11/instagram-posts/partnership-targeted-election-
misinformationnot-c/).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Additionally, the resolution appears premature as Rep. 
Clyde has apparently made no attempt to engage with the 
Committee to obtain the documents requested through other 
means. Historically, resolutions of inquiry have been 
introduced in instances where an administration has refused to 
respond to reasonable committee or member requests.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\See H.R. Rep. No. 115-54, at 4-6 (2017).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The majority remains committed to holding social media 
platforms accountable for their harmful conduct and protecting 
the First Amendment. However, H. Res. 1476 is unnecessary and 
inappropriate. Therefore, the Committee ordered H. Res. 1476 
reported to the House adversely.

                        III. COMMITTEE HEARINGS

    The Committee on Energy and Commerce has not held hearings 
on the legislation.

                      IV. COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION

    H. Res. 1476 was introduced on November 16, 2022, by 
Representative Clyde (R-GA) and was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce. Subsequently, on November 17, 2022, the 
resolution was referred to the Subcommittee on Communications 
and Technology. The resolution was discharged from the 
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on December 14, 
2022.
    On December 14, 2022, the Committee met in open markup 
session and ordered H. Res. 1476, without amendment, adversely 
reported to the House by a record vote of 28 yeas and 23 nays.

                           V. COMMITTEE VOTES

    Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives requires the Committee to list each record vote 
on the motion to report legislation and amendments thereto. The 
Committee advises that there was one record votes taken on H. 
Res. 1476 including a motion by Mr. Pallone ordering H. Res. 
1476 adversely reported to the House, without amendment. The 
motion on final passage of the bill was approved by a record 
vote of 28 yeas to 23 nays. The following are the record votes 
taken during Committee consideration, including the names of 
those members voting for and against:

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                         VI. OVERSIGHT FINDINGS

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII and clause 2(b)(1) 
of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
oversight findings and recommendations of the Committee are 
reflected in the descriptive portion of the report.

 VII. NEW BUDGET AUTHORITY, ENTITLEMENT AUTHORITY, AND TAX EXPENDITURES

    Pursuant to 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives, the Committee adopts as its own the 
estimate of new budget authority, entitlement authority, or tax 
expenditures or revenues contained in the cost estimate 
prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office 
pursuant to section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974.
    The Committee has requested but not received from the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office a statement as to 
whether this bill contains any new budget authority, spending 
authority, credit authority, or an increase or decrease in 
revenues or tax expenditures.

                    VIII. FEDERAL MANDATES STATEMENT

    The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of Federal 
mandates prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office pursuant to section 423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform 
Act.

       IX. STATEMENT OF GENERAL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general 
performance goal or objective of this legislation is to request 
that the President provide certain documents to the House of 
Representatives relating to coordination between social media 
companies and the Biden administration on information, 
censorship, and censorship meetings.

                   X. DUPLICATION OF FEDERAL PROGRAMS

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(5) of rule XIII, no provision of H. 
Res. 1476 is known to be duplicative of another Federal 
program, including any program that was included in a report to 
Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139 or the 
most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

                      XI. COMMITTEE COST ESTIMATE

    Pursuant to clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII, the Committee 
adopts as its own the cost estimate prepared by the Director of 
the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 402 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

    XII. EARMARKS, LIMITED TAX BENEFITS, AND LIMITED TARIFF BENEFITS

    Pursuant to clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI, the 
Committee finds that H. Res. 1476 contains no earmarks, limited 
tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits.

                   XIII. ADVISORY COMMITTEE STATEMENT

    No advisory committee within the meaning of section 5(b) of 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act was created by this 
legislation.

                XIV. APPLICABILITY TO LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not relate to 
the terms and conditions of employment or access to public 
services or accommodations within the meaning of section 
102(b)(3) of the Congressional Accountability Act.

           XV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE LEGISLATION

    H. Res. 1476 requests that the President transmit to the 
House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date 
of the adoption of this resolution, records either generated or 
received by the office of the President, that refer or relate 
to: the Election Integrity Partnership; efforts to censor 
information; attempts to do fact-checks; procedures to flag 
incidents to be assessed by social media companies; resilience 
efforts to counter election misinformation; consortium 
agreements, collaboration, or meetings about social media or 
disinformation with any private entities; the removal, 
throttling, or labeling of content; flagged Uniform Resource 
Locators (URLs), including the labeling, removal, or soft-
blocking of such URLs; the removal, throttling, or labeling of 
news and opinion organizations or the content of news and 
opinion organizations; meetings or discussions regarding 
misinformation and disinformation with certain named 
individuals; platform interventions in response to certain 
issues; communications on misinformation or disinformation 
concerning individual social media users; content moderation; 
far-right influencers; certain National Science Foundation 
grants to named academic institutions; incident reports for 
tweets and retweets; spreading misinformation and 
disinformation on Hunter Biden or White House Chief Medical 
Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci; and repeat spreaders of election 
misinformation.

       XVI. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    There are no changes to existing law made by the bill H. 
Res. 1476.

                          XVII. MINORITY VIEWS

    H. Res. 1476, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA), 
requests certain documents or records relating to coordination 
between social media companies and the Biden administration on 
information, censorship, and censorship meetings in order to 
suppress or deplatform persons or information the 
administration views as misinformation, disinformation, and 
malinformation on COVID-19, Hunter Biden, and elections, and 
certain documents or records relating to plans to provide grant 
funding to consortiums, including the Democratic National 
Committee, in the United States.
    For years, the Biden administration has demonstrated a 
repeated interest in using the power and influence of the 
Executive Branch to coerce private actors into censoring 
content which does not align with its political interests. This 
became particularly clear following the release of the Twitter 
files in December 2022. Internal Twitter conversations revealed 
the Biden Administration has been colluding with Big Tech to 
block speech that differs from President Biden's position.\1\ 
Further, the documents raise serious questions about whether 
former CEO Jack Dorsey lied in his testimony in front of this 
Committee when denying top Twitter executives were shadow 
banning conservatives.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Twitter, Matt Taibbi (Dec. 9, 2022), available at https://t.co/
kgC4eGykcO.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The White House has shown interest in having social media 
companies remove content that the White House deems as 
``misinformation.'' On July 15, 2021, White House Press 
Secretary Jen Psaki disclosed that the Surgeon General's office 
is monitoring content on technology platforms and that the 
Biden administration has been in ``regular touch with'' social 
media platforms to pressure them to ``move more quickly to 
remove harmful, violative posts.''\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\White House, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki and 
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy (July 15, 2021), available at 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/07/15/
press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-and-surgeon-general-dr-
vivek-h-murthy-july-15 2021/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Biden administration has also shown a pattern of 
behavior requesting private companies censor certain content. 
On February 1, 2022, Press Secretary Psaki applauded Spotify 
for adding disclaimers to certain episodes of The Joe Rogan 
Experience, but implicitly suggested Spotify deplatform Joe 
Rogan by demanding ``more . . . be done.''\3\ Subsequently, on 
March 3, 2022, the Surgeon General Murthy formally requested 
that technology companies submit information about COVID-19 
misinformation.\4\ The Surgeon General demanded information 
about the ``COVID-19 misinformation policies on individual 
technology platforms'' and, even more alarming, specific 
information about individuals who are considered to be 
``sources of COVID-19 misinformation.''\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\Steven Nelson, Psaki cheers Spotify warning on COVID podcasts, 
says `more' should be done, New York Post (Feb, 1, 2022), available at 
https://nypost.com/2022/02/01/psaki-cheers-spotify-warning-on-joe-
rogans-covid-podcasts/.
    \4\Davey Alba, The surgeon general calls on Big Tech to turn over 
Covid-19 misinformation data, New York Times (Mar. 3, 2022), available 
at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/technology/surgeon-general-covid-
misinformation.html.
    \5\U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Impact of Health 
Misinformation in the Digital Information Environment in the United 
States Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic Request for Information, (Mar. 
4, 2022), available at https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/
2022-04777.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    As if this were not enough, the Biden administration's 
Department of Homeland Security tried to establish a 
Disinformation Governance Board to continue their censorship 
mission. The White House should not be arbiters of truth, 
pressuring private companies to shut down speech that they deem 
is false or harmful.
    In Bantam Books v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court held that a 
government agency violated the First Amendment by sending 
letters to private booksellers to ``inform'' them they were 
selling books and magazines the agency found objectionable. The 
agency's letters thanked the booksellers for their 
``anticipated cooperation'' and reminded them of the agency's 
duty to recommend prosecutions. The Court found that such 
behavior amounted to ``informal censorship'' because the effect 
of the letters was to intimidate the booksellers into 
suppressing the sale of the certain books and magazines. The 
Court found that such behavior amounted to an unconstitutional 
``scheme of state censorship.'' Here, the Biden administration 
appears to be engaged in similar behavior.
    Republican leaders on the Committee have taken several 
steps to request documents, communications, and information 
regarding efforts by the Surgeon General, Press Secretary, and 
other Biden administration officials to censor conservatives 
and coerce social media platforms into censoring perceived 
``health misinformation.'' On July 21, 2021, 189 Republican 
Members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden requesting 
information about what social media platforms the 
administration was working with to coordinate the removal of 
certain content or certain users.\6\ On March 11, 2022, 
Republican Leaders of the Committees on Energy and Commerce, 
Judiciary, Oversight and Reform, and the Select Subcommittee on 
the Coronavirus Crisis sent a letter to Surgeon General Vivek 
Murthy specifically asking for documents and internal 
communications that refer to or relate to the communication or 
coordination of the Biden administration and social media 
companies regarding censorship or content moderation.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\See, Letter from 189 Republican Members of Congress to President 
Biden, July 21, 2021, Available at: https://republicans-
energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021.07.22-WH-
Letter-on-Censorship-FINAL-CP5-1.pdf.
    \7\See, Letter from Ranking Members McMorris Rodgers, Jordan, 
Comer, and Scalise to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, March 11, 2022. 
Available at: https://republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2022/03/3.11.22-Letter-to-Surgeon-General-Murthy-Final.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On September 13, 2022, Republicans requested President 
Biden hand over documents, information, and communications 
relating to meetings between Biden administration officials and 
private social media companies relating to censorship of 
certain content or individuals.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\See, Letter from Republican Leaders McMorris Rodgers, Latta, and 
Bilirakis to President Biden, September 13, 2022. Available at: https:/
/republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/
2022.09.13-WH-Document-Preservation-Request.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To date, the Committee has not received the documents, 
communications, or information in question. Knowing this 
information is crucial to our government's checks and balances 
and oversight responsibilities, to ensure that the Biden 
administration is upholding the Constitution. Therefore, the 
Minority believes the Resolution of Inquiry is the proper next 
step to obtaining such information.

                                    Cathy McMorris Rodgers,
               Republican Leader, Committee on Energy and Commerce.

                                  [all]