S 66 Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.
Transparency in Bureaucratic Communications Act
To amend title 5, United States Code, to instruct Inspectors General to report to Congress on social media communications.
Summary
This bill amends the Inspector General Act of 1978 to require agency Inspectors General to report to Congress on communications between their agencies and social media platforms and internet service providers. The reports must detail any communications (or attempts to communicate) regarding content moderation, user-generated content such as posts and photos, and platform operations including data inputs, algorithms, and analysis tools. This reporting requirement gives Congress oversight of federal agency interactions with social media companies and internet platforms.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO] (R-MO)
Actions (2)
- Jan 9, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
- Jan 9, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 9, 2025
Mr. Schmitt introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to instruct Inspectors General to report to Congress on social media communications.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Transparency in Bureaucratic Communications Act”.
SEC. 2. INSPECTOR GENERAL ACT OF 1978.
Section 405(b) of title 5, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in paragraph (21)(B), by striking “and” at the end;
(2) in paragraph (22)(B), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
“(23) a detailed description of the contents and particular circumstances of any communication, or attempted communication, between the establishment and any internet computer service, information content provider, or access software provider (as defined under section 230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)), including—
“(A) communications regarding content moderation (as described under section 230(c)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)(2));
“(B) user content, including posts, photos, and videos; and
“(C) any other communications relating to the internet computer service, information content provider, or access software provider’s data inputs, algorithms, modeling and simulation processes, analysis tools, or any related tool.”. <all>
Comments