2024: Schweikert Voted To Prohibit Contracts With Or Awards To Organizations That Combat Disinformation. In June 2024, Schweikert 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]