U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) on June 4 led seven Republicans in introducing legislation that would prohibit the employees, officers, and agents of the U.S. Department of State, and any persons and entities awarded federal grants or contracts from the State Department, from censoring the free speech of United States citizens.
“The federal government should not be censoring the speech of Americans, and they sure as heck shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to pay outside organizations to do it either,” said Rep. Huizenga, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia.
The congressman sponsored the Restoring American Freedom Act, H.R. 3719, alongside seven GOP cosponsors to also stop the federal government from using third-party entities to blacklist Americans or create censorship tools used against Americans, according to a bill summary provided by his office.
“The Restoring American Freedom Act is a direct response to the Biden administration’s effort to censor Americans, particularly conservatives and those who disagreed with the administration’s policies,” Rep. Huizenga said. “The Restoring American Freedom Act codifies President Trump’s executive order from April into law and makes sure that free speech is protected and the federal government is never weaponized in this manner against Americans again.”
According to information provided by Rep. Huizenga, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) played a role in facilitating the censorship of Americans by awarding grants to NGOs, not-for-profits, and for-profit entities that created and sold advertising blacklists that were used to target conservative media outlets and voices.
In December 2024, following an investigation from the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and numerous other committees, Congress allowed the statutory authorization of the GEC to lapse, but it was restructured by the Biden administration into a Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R/FIMI), the information says.
On Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order to end all censorship of Americans by the federal government, and on April 16 he terminated the remaining 40 R/FIMI employees and shuttered the office.