2024: Fitzpatrick Voted To Prohibit Contracts With Or Awards To
Organizations That Combat Disinformation. In June 2024, Fitzpatrick
voted for , according to Congressional Quarterly, "amendment no. 45 that
would prohibit funds authorized or made available in fiscal 2025 under
the bill to be used to contract with or grants awards to NewsGuard
Technologies, Inc. or Disinformation Index, Ltd. or affiliates or a
nonprofit organization or other entity that engages in certain
behavior." The vote was on the amendment. The underlying legislation was
the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The House adopted the
amendment by a vote of 218 to 206. [House Vote 270,
6/13/24; Congressional
Quarterly, 6/13/24;
Congressional Actions,
H.Amdt.979;
Congressional Actions, H.R.
8070]
- The Amendment Came As Representative James Comer Launched A Probe
Into NewsGuard's Impact On First Amendment Speech, Citing A
Potential For Censorship, And Whether The Organization Was Sponsored
In Any Way By The Government. According to the Hill, "House
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Thursday he
is launching a probe into a news-rating system that seeks to guard
against misinformation by scoring news and information sites based
on their reliability, trustworthiness and financial conflict of
interest. Comer said the probe will focus on 'the impact of
NewsGuard on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to
serve as a non-transparent agent of censorship campaigns.' [...]
'The Committee seeks to make an independent determination about
whether NewsGuard's intervention on protected speech has been in any
way sponsored by a federal, state, local, or foreign government,'
Comer wrote in his letter." [The Hill,
6/13/24]