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FIRST ON FOX: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is leading several of his Republican compatriots on a new bill that would defund President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) disinformation board.
Cotton and his colleagues introduced the bill taking aim at DHS’s new board amid First Amendment concerns from critics and lawmakers alike.
The bill aims to “prohibit the use of federal funds for the Disinformation Governance Board of the Department of Homeland Security” and would prevent taxpayer dollars from going to “establish or support the activities” of such a board.
FREE SPEECH CONCERNS MOUNT OVER DHS ‘DISINFORMATION’ BOARD AS LAWMAKERS, CRITICS WEIGH IN
Sen. Tom Cotton questions Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 27, 2021.
(Tasos Katopodis/Pool via Reuters)
It also prevents the funds from going toward “any other similar entity established” in DHS.
The bill is already seeing robust sponsorship from big-name GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Jim Risch of Idaho, as well as both Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida.
The new bill came after the Biden administration announced the new board housed under DHS.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2022.
(Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Federal and state lawmakers, constitutional scholars and other experts are expressing concerns with DHS’s new misinformation board, which they say is the Biden administration’s attempt to stifle free speech and likening it to the Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.”
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced during testimony Wednesday before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security that DHS had created the board to combat online disinformation.
Nina Jankowicz will be the executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board.
(@wiczipedia Twitter account)
“The goal is to bring the resources of (DHS) together to address this threat,” Mayorkas said during the hearing, adding that the department is focused on the spread of disinformation in minority communities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
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Cotton quickly condemned the Biden administration’s “unconstitutional” new board and promised to introduce legislation to defund it.
True to his word, Cotton has delivered legislation doing just that. Now, it has to survive the legislative process in both the Senate and House.
Fox News Digital’s Kelly Laco contributed reporting.
