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Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012

112TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 5736
To amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act
of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination of information and
material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 10, 2012
Mr. THORNBERRY (for himself and Mr. SMITH of Washington) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To amend the United States Information and Educational
Exchange Act of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination
of information and material about the United
States intended primarily for foreign audiences, and for
other purposes.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Smith-Mundt Mod-
5 ernization Act of 2012’’.
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2
•HR 5736 IH
1 SEC. 2. DISSEMINATION ABROAD OF INFORMATION ABOUT
2 THE UNITED STATES.
3 (a) UNITED STATES INFORMATION AND EDU-
4 CATIONAL EXCHANGE ACT OF 1948.—Section 501 of the
5 United States Information and Educational Exchange Act
6 of 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1461) is amended to read as follows:
7 ‘‘GENERAL AUTHORIZATION
8 ‘‘SEC. 501. (a) The Secretary and the Broadcasting
9 Board of Governors are authorized to use funds appro-
10 priated or otherwise made available for public diplomacy
11 information programs to provide for the preparation, dis-
12 semination, and use of information intended for foreign
13 audiences abroad about the United States, its people, and
14 its policies, through press, publications, radio, motion pic-
15 tures, the Internet, and other information media, includ-
16 ing social media, and through information centers, in-
17 structors, and other direct or indirect means of commu-
18 nication.
19 ‘‘(b)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Sec-
20 retary and the Broadcasting Board of Governors may,
21 upon request and reimbursement of the reasonable costs
22 incurred in fulfilling such a request, make available, in the
23 United States, motion pictures, films, video, audio, and
24 other materials prepared for dissemination abroad or dis-
25 seminated abroad pursuant to this Act, the United States
26 International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6201
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•HR 5736 IH
1 et seq.), the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act (22 U.S.C.
2 1465 et seq.), or the Television Broadcasting to Cuba Act
3 (22 U.S.C. 1465aa et seq.). The Secretary and the Broad-
4 casting Board of Governors shall issue necessary regula-
5 tions—
6 ‘‘(A) to establish procedures to maintain such
7 material;
8 ‘‘(B) for reimbursement of the reasonable costs
9 incurred in fulfilling requests for such material; and
10 ‘‘(C) to ensure that the persons seeking release
11 of such material have secured and paid for necessary
12 United States rights and licenses.
13 ‘‘(2) With respect to material prepared for dissemina-
14 tion abroad or disseminated abroad before the effective
15 date of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012—
16 ‘‘(A) the Secretary and the Broadcasting Board
17 of Governors shall make available to the Archivist of
18 the United States, for domestic distribution, motion
19 pictures, films, videotapes, and other material 12
20 years after the initial dissemination of the material
21 abroad; and
22 ‘‘(B) the Archivist shall be the official custodian
23 of the material and shall issue necessary regulations
24 to ensure that persons seeking its release in the
25 United States have secured and paid for necessary
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•HR 5736 IH
1 United States rights and licenses and that all costs
2 associated with the provision of the material by the
3 Archivist shall be paid by the persons seeking its re-
4 lease, in accordance with paragraph (3).
5 ‘‘(3) The Archivist may charge fees to recover the
6 costs described in paragraph (2), in accordance with sec-
7 tion 2116(c) of title 44. Such fees shall be paid into, ad-
8 ministered, and expended as part of the National Archives
9 Trust Fund.
10 ‘‘(c) Nothing in this section may be construed to re-
11 quire the Secretary or the Broadcasting Board of Gov-
12 ernors to make material disseminated abroad available in
13 any format other than in the format disseminated
14 abroad.’’.
15 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
16 tion may be construed to affect the allocation of funds ap-
17 propriated or otherwise made specifically available for
18 public diplomacy.
19 (c) FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FIS-
20 CAL YEARS 1986 AND 1987.—Section 208 of the Foreign
21 Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1986 and 1987
22 (22 U.S.C. 1461–1a) is amended to read as follows:
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•HR 5736 IH
1 ‘‘SEC. 208. CLARIFICATION ON DOMESTIC DISTRIBUTION OF
2 PROGRAM MATERIAL.
3 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—No funds authorized to be ap-
4 propriated to the Department of State or the Broad-
5 casting Board of Governors shall be used to influence pub-
6 lic opinion in the United States. This section shall apply
7 only to programs carried out pursuant to the United
8 States Information and Educational Exchange Act of
9 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.), the United States Inter-
10 national Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6201 et
11 seq.), the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act (22 U.S.C.
12 1465 et seq.), and the Television Broadcasting to Cuba
13 Act (22 U.S.C. 1465aa et seq.). This section shall not pro-
14 hibit or delay the Department of State or the Broad-
15 casting Board of Governors from providing information
16 about its operations, policies, programs, or program mate-
17 rial, or making such available, to the media, public, or
18 Congress, in accordance with other applicable law.
19 ‘‘(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
20 tion shall be construed to prohibit the Department of
21 State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors from en-
22 gaging in any medium or form of communication, either
23 directly or indirectly, because a United States domestic
24 audience is or may be thereby exposed to program mate-
25 rial, or based on a presumption of such exposure. Such
26 material may be made available within the United States
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•HR 5736 IH
1 and disseminated, when appropriate, pursuant to sections
2 502 and 1005 of the United States Information and Edu-
3 cational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1462 and
4 1437), except that nothing in this section may be con-
5 strued to authorize the Department of State or the Broad-
6 casting Board of Governors to disseminate within the
7 United States any program material prepared for dissemi-
8 nation abroad on or before the effective date of the Smith-
9 Mundt Modernization Act of 2012.
10 ‘‘(c) APPLICATION.—The provisions of this section
11 shall apply only to the Department of State and the
12 Broadcasting Board of Governors and to no other depart-
13 ment or agency of the Federal Government.’’.
14 (d) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—The United
15 States Information and Educational Exchange Act of
16 1948 is amended—
17 (1) in section 502 (22 U.S.C. 1462)—
18 (A) by inserting ‘‘and the Broadcasting
19 Board of Governors’’ after ‘‘Secretary’’; and
20 (B) by inserting ‘‘or the Broadcasting
21 Board of Governors’’ after ‘‘Department’’; and
22 (2) in section 1005 (22 U.S.C. 1437), by insert-
23 ing ‘‘and the Broadcasting Board of Governors’’
24 after ‘‘Secretary’’ each place it appears.
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•HR 5736 IH
1 (e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall take effect
2 and apply on the date that is 180 days after the date of
3 the enactment of this Act.

Wikipedia Smith Mundt Modernization Act of 2012

The US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Public Law 80-402), popularly referred to as the Smith–Mundt Act, specifies the terms in which the United States government can engage global audiences, also known as public diplomacy. The act was first introduced as the Bloom Bill in December 1945 in the 79th Congress and subsequently passed by the 80th Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on January 27, 1948. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (section 1078 (a)) amended the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, allowing for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders for the Archivist of the United States...

The original legislation authorizes the U.S. State Department to communicate to audiences outside of the borders of the United States through broadcasting, face-to-face contacts, exchanges (including educational, cultural, and technical), online activities, the publishing of books, magazines, and other media of communication and engagement. Funding for these activities comes from other legislation passed by the U.S. Congress called appropriations. The legislation was introduced in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in October 1945 at the request of the State Department. It passed the committee onto the floor of the House of Representatives and became known as the Bloom Bill after the committee's chairman, Rep. Sol Bloom (D-NY). The purpose was to make permanent various information and exchange activities that began as early as a decade before, including the Voice of America radio broadcasts that began in 1942. The bill was to make permanent global engagement. On the cultural side, the so-called "slow" communications, it reintroduced cultural programming Bloom had attempted to pass the year before. On the "fast" side of communications, it would provide legislative approval for a new peacetime instrument of foreign policy. The shift from wartime to peacetime "propaganda" operations was not taken lightly by Congress, especially with fresh memories of President Woodrow Wilson’s Committee for Public Information (CPI), President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Office of War Information (OWI), and the Nazi propaganda machine. But there were other, deeper concerns the Congress focused on.[according to whom?] Congressional concerns[edit] Congress harbored significant reservations about empowering the State Department. The key issue was not whether US Government information activities should be known to the American public, but whether the State Department could be trusted to create, manage and disseminate these products. When the Bloom Bill (HR 4982) went to the House Rules Committee in February 1946, committee Chairman Eugene Cox (D-GA) informed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs William J. Benton that ten of the twelve committee members were against anything the State Department favored because of its "Communist infiltration and pro-Russian policy." That the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously reported the bill out was meaningless. Cox told Benton that the Foreign Affairs Committee was "a worthless committee consisting of worthless impotent Congressmen; it was a kind of ghetto of the House of Representatives."[2] Cox publicly characterized the State Department as "chock full of Reds" and "the lousiest outfit in town". The information component of the Bloom Bill was seen as a revitalization of the Office of War Information, for which many in Congress held contempt as a New Deal "transgression". The cultural component was held in greater disdain, which caused Benton to change the name of his office from the Office of Cultural and Public Affairs a year after it was created to the Office of Public Affairs.[3] Other comments were similarly tough. The ranking minority member of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Rep. John Taber (D-NY), called for a "house-cleaning" of "some folks" in the State Department to "keep only those people whose first loyalty is to the United States."[4] The FBI was also concerned over the ability of State to monitor and control participants in the exchange programs.[5] Debate and passage[edit] In July 1946, the Bloom Bill passed the House, only to be blocked in the Senate by Senator Taft. Taft never gave a reason for his action. On March 21, 1947, pre-Pearl Harbor isolationist and former teacher Representative Karl Mundt (R-SD) introduced H.R. 3342 at the request of the State Department. The State Department's information and exchange activities were still ongoing, although without authorization from the Congress. The authority was derived from Congressional appropriations legislation. In other words, the activities continued because they received money from Congress, which carried implicit authority but actual authority was still lacking. Co-sponsoring the Mundt bill in the Senate was Senator H. Alexander Smith (R-NJ). The stated purpose of the reintroduced legislation was not to curtail the overall information activities of the United States, but to raise the quality and volume of the government’s information programs. As the State Department admitted to lax oversight due to personnel and budget constraints, Congress voiced its frustration and slashed State’s information budget. This time, Taber said if the "drones, the loafers, and the incompetents" were weeded out, he would allow a few million dollars for international broadcasting.[6] Several significant leaders went to the House to testify in support of the bill, including Secretary of State George Marshall, Chief of Staff General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Secretary of Commerce W. Averell Harriman (formerly the Ambassador to Russia), and Ambassador to Russia Walter Bedell Smith. They agreed that it was "folly" to spend millions for foreign aid and relief without explaining America’s aims.[7] Congress, in recommending passage of the bill, declared that "truth can be a powerful weapon." Congress further declared six principles were required for the legislation to be successful in action: tell the truth; explain the motives of the United States; bolster morale and extend hope; give a true and convincing picture of American life, methods, and ideals; combat misrepresentation and distortion; and aggressively interpret and support American foreign policy. As a Cold War measure, it was intended to counter and inoculate against propaganda from the Soviet Union and Communist organizations primarily in Europe. The principal purpose of the legislation was to engage in a global struggle for minds and wills, a phrase used by Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It established the programming mandate that still serves as the foundation for U.S. overseas information and cultural programs at the Department of State. Cold War era[edit] Since 1972, the act prohibits domestic access to information intended for foreign audiences. Prior to this, the State Department and then the USIA beginning in 1952, were prohibited from disseminating information intended for foreign audiences, with the express intent that Congress, the American media, or academia would be the distributors of such information.[8] The act expanded the Fulbright Program to include countries other than those Lend-Lease countries originally specified in the original 1946 amendment to the Surplus Property Act of 1944. It also facilitated the establishment of bi-national centers around the world to coordinate international exchanges between the countries.[9] Amendments to the Act in 1972 and 1985 reflected the Cold War’s departure from the “struggle for minds and wills” (a phrase used by both President Truman and President Eisenhower) to a balance of power based on “traditional diplomacy” and counting missiles, bombers, and tanks. As a result, Senator J. William Fulbright argued America’s international broadcasting should take its “rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics”.[10] A decade later, Senator Edward Zorinsky (D-NE) successfully blocked taxpayer access to USIA materials, even through Freedom of Information Act requests, as he compared the USIA to an organ of Soviet propaganda.[11] Provisions[edit] There are three key restrictions on the U.S. State Department in the Smith–Mundt Act. The first and most well-known restriction was originally a prohibition on domestic dissemination of materials intended for foreign audiences by the State Department. The original intent was the Congress, the media and academia would be the filter to bring inside what the State Department said overseas. In 1967, the Advisory Commission on Information (later renamed the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy) recommended the de facto prohibition on domestic distribution be removed noting that there is "nothing in the statutes specifically forbidding making USIA materials available to American audiences. Rather, what began as caution has hardened into policy."[12] This changed in 1972 when Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR) argued that America’s international broadcasting should take its "rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics" as he successfully amended the Act to read that any program material "shall not be disseminated" within the U.S. and that material shall be available "for examination only" to the media, academia, and Congress (P.L. 95-352 Sec. 204). In 1985, Senator Edward Zorinsky (D-NE) declared USIA would be no different than an organ of Soviet propaganda if its products were to be available domestically.[13] The Act was amended to read: "no program material prepared by the United States Information Agency shall be distributed within the United States" (P.L. 99-93). At least one court interpreted this language to mean USIA products were to be exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests. In response, the Act was amended again in 1990 to permit domestic distribution of program material "12 years after the initial dissemination" abroad (P.L. 101-246 Sec 202). The second and third provisions were of greater interest to the Congress as they answered critical concerns about a deep-pocket government engaging domestic audiences. Added to the Bloom Bill, the predecessor to the Smith-Mundt Bill in June 1946 by Representative John M. Vorys (R-OH) "to remove the stigma of propaganda" and address the principal objections to the information activities the Congress intended to authorize. These provisions remain unamended and were the real prophylactic to address concerns the U.S. Government would create Nazi-style propaganda or resurrect President Wilson's CPI-style activities. The amendment said the information activities should only be conducted if needed to supplement international information dissemination of private agencies; that the State Department was not to acquire a monopoly of broadcasting or any other information medium; and that private sector leaders should be invited to review and advise the State Department in this work. Section 1437 of the Act requires the State Department to maximize its use of "private agencies." Section 1462 requires "reducing Government information activities whenever corresponding private information dissemination is found to be adequate" and prohibits the State Department from having monopoly in any "medium of information" (a prescient phrase). Combined, these provide not only protection against government's domination of domestic discourse, but interestingly a "sunset clause" for governmental activities that Rep. Karl Mundt (R-SD) and Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs William Benton stated clearly: as private media stood up, government media would stand down. Excerpt[edit] Section 501(a) of the Act (care of the Voice of America website) provides that "information produced by VOA for audiences outside the United States shall not be disseminated within the United States … but, on request, shall be available in the English language at VOA, at all reasonable times following its release as information abroad, for examination only by representatives of United States press associations, newspapers, magazines, radio systems, and stations, and by research students and scholars, and, on request, shall be made available for examination only to Members of Congress." "This means that VOA is forbidden to broadcast within the United States." In reality, of course, any American with a shortwave receiver or an Internet connection can listen to VOA. That's incidental, however. VOA cannot direct or intend its programs to be "for" Americans. This distinction is often lost on experts who see the letter of the law but with no real understanding of the media. George W. Bush-era State Department official James K. Glassman has called for directing VOA at American audiences. Entities Covered by the Act[edit] The following are administered by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an agency of the US government. Voice of America, a radio, TV and Internet network broadcasting worldwide, intended for reception outside of the US Alhurra, satellite TV broadcasting to the Middle East Radio Farda, a radio station targeted at Iran Radio Free Asia, a radio network broadcasting in Asia Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a radio network based in Europe and the Middle East Radio Martí and TV Martí, a radio and TV network broadcasting in Cuba Radio Sawa, a radio station broadcasting in the Middle East No other department or agency of the US government is covered by the Smith–Mundt Act. The United States Agency for International Development and Millennium Challenge Corporation have said they are not sure whether they are covered.[14] Recent Interpretations[edit] A 1998 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling indicated that this act exempts Voice of America from releasing transcripts in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The act does not prohibit the entirety of the Executive Branch from distributing information at home, just the State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors. The result of the amendments to the Act means that most US taxpayers do not know how the VOA (and its successor agencies) operate or what their programming content was, as was noted in 1967 by the Stanton Commission report noted above. The act both insulates the American public from being targeted by the government-sponsored information and broadcasting which is directed at audiences beyond America's borders. Some "experts" claim that the U.S. is "the only industrialized democracy to do this, and creates mistrust of the same activities in these audiences who increasingly question why Americans cannot read or hear the same material." However, anyone with an Internet connection can access VOA programs and articles for the web, radio and TV (VOA increasingly emphasizes television programming now) in English and other languages.

RT.com US ends ban on 'domestic propaganda'

It’s being branded by proponents as an attempt at transparency, but critics of a new law say the United States government just got the green-light to use propaganda made for foreign audiences on the American public.

Until earlier this month, a longstanding federal law made it illegal for the US Department of State to share domestically the internally-authored news stories sent to American-operated outlets broadcasting around the globe. All of that changed effective July 2, when the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was given permission to let US households tune-in to hear the type of programming that has previously only been allowed in outside nations. 

The BBG is the independent government agency that broadcasts Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other networks created “to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy" - and a new law now allows the agency to provide members of the American public with program materials originally meant to be disseminated abroad.

The Smith-Mundt Act has ensured for decades that government-made media intended for foreign audiences doesn’t end up on radio networks broadcast within the US. An amendment tagged onto the National Defense Authorization Act removed that prohibition this year, however, and as of earlier this month those news stories meant for nations abroad can now be heard easily by American ears.

Back in 1972, Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright equated those government stories with propaganda when he said they "should be given the opportunity to take their rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics.” A couple of current lawmakers were singing a different tune when they proposed the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 last year, though, which became official just two weeks ago.

When Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA) introduced their changes last year, they said their bill would modify “a Cold War-era law that hampers diplomatic, defense and other agencies’ ability to communicate in the twenty-first century.” Amid much debate, however, their argument quickly became one that focused less on ensuring Uncle Sam has his say within the media and more on making sure a taxpayer-funded program became available to those footing the costs.

“Effective strategic communication and public diplomacy should be front-and-center as we work to roll back al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence among disaffected populations,” Rep. Smith wrote in May 2012 in support of his bill. “An essential part of our efforts must be a coordinated, comprehensive, adequately resourced plan to counter their radical messages and undermine their recruitment abilities. To do this, Smith-Mundt must be updated to bolster our strategic communications and public diplomacy capacity on all fronts and mediums – especially online.”

But a Buzzfeed article published days later by late journalist Michael Hastings opened a can of worms on Smith and Thornberry, and the lawmakers were forced to quickly diffuse critics who said their bill made it so that the government could effectuate propaganda on its own public. On his part, Thornberry told Foreign Policy that the BuzzFeed article and the subsequent blowback was “one level of sloppiness on top of another,” caused by an uninformed Hastings story being hijacked by pundits from other publications who were all the more ignorant. “And once something sensational gets out there, it just spreads like wildfire," said Thornberry.

"The idea that the State Department could be so effective as to impact domestic politics is just silly,” Thornberry told Foreign Policy last year. “This gives Americans the chance to see what the State Department is saying to people all over the world,” he insisted.

Weighing in to Foreign Policy one year later, BBG spokeswoman Lynne Weil said that the maneuver is nothing more than to show Americans how their money is being spent abroad. "Now Americans will be able to know more about what they are paying for with their tax dollars - greater transparency is a win-win for all involved," she said. 

A view inside the BBG Middle East Broadcasting Networks newsroom. (Image from whitehouse.gov)

In the wake of others’ comments, though — and the actual text of the legislation itself — critics can’t help but suggest that the latest amendment courtesy of Smith and Thornberry have opened the door for the use of propaganda to persuade the American public at a time when the popularity of both Congress and the president are lower than what either would prefer.

Those opinions and others could change, of course, if the American government can infiltrate the radio waves and introduce news aimed at specific demographics that has previously only been pushed outside of the US. The statement from Smith and Thornberry last year suggested that the Cold War-era legislation previously prevented a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based radio station with a large Somali-American audience from broadcasting a piece produced by the BBG’s Voice of America that rebutted efforts from Somalia’s al- Shabaab extremist group to recruit members within the US.

“Even after the community was targeted for recruitment by al-Shabaab and other extremists, government lawyers refused the replay request, noting that Smith-Mundt tied their hands,” wrote the lawmakers.

"Somalis have three options for news" a former US government source with connections to the BBG told Foreign Policy. The source added that those three options are word of mouth, al-Shabaab or VOA Somalia.

"Those people can get al-Shabaab, they can get Russia Today, but they couldn't get access to their taxpayer-funded news sources like VOA Somalia," the source said. "It was silly."

“Previously, the legislation had the effect of clouding and hiding this stuff," the source said. "Now we'll have a better sense: Gee some of this stuff is really good. Or gee some of this stuff is really bad. At least we'll know now."

According to a document from the Office of the Federal Register published this week by Cryptome, the Smith-Thornberry act “does not require or prompt the public to take any action; rather, it functions to relieve the prohibition that prevented the Agency from responding to requests for program materials from the US public, US media entities or other US organizations.”

“This rule benefits the public, media, and other organizations by allowing them to request and access BBG program materials, which previously could not be disseminated within the US,” it reads.

The rule applies only to media published by the State Department and does not involve any initiatives created or funded through the Pentagon.

 

 

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