Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act

Senators Rob Portman (R, OH) and Chris Murphy (D, CT) and introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on 10 May 2016 by Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R, IL), joined by thirteen bipartisan co-sponsors, including Ted Lieu (D, CA) of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

[4][9] On November 30, 2016, legislators approved a measure within the National Defense Authorization Act to ask the U.S. State Department to take action against foreign propaganda through an interagency panel.

[7] In a speech to lawmakers on 8 December 2016, Hillary Clinton called attention to the issue, saying pending legislation before the U.S. Congress would "boost the government's response to foreign propaganda.

[12] It was included together with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report for fiscal year 2017, which passed in the U.S. Senate with a final tally of 92 to 7.

"[10] Supporters of the resolution inside the Defense Department have publicly expressed their desire to weaken the interpretation of domestic propaganda protections, laws which prevent the United States Department of State from gathering information necessary to develop targeted propaganda messaging and prevent them from explicitly attempting to influence opinions.

[10] According to The New York Times, as of March 2018, the State Department had not yet begun to spend the $120 million allocated to it, and not one of the 23 analysts working in the GEC could speak Russian.