Exclusive | Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt unveils bill demanding fed watchdogs keep Congress in the loop on censorship by agencies

Sen.Eric Schmitt introduced new legislation Thursday that would force the watchdogs of federal agencies to scour for any indications of collusion between federal agencies and social media companies and inform Congress of such activities.

The Transparency in Bureaucratic Communications Act specifically demands Congress get “a detailed description” of correspondence between agencies and online platforms as well as the context behind those communications.“Let me make it clear, the incoming Republican Congress cannot allow deep-state bureaucrats to continue censoring the free speech of our constituents any longer,” Schmitt said in a statement.“We must continue to expose the full extent of the Biden administration’s censorship schemes against the American people,” he added.“We will find the bureaucratic rot and we will rip it out.”The policy specifically applies to companies that receive protections under Section 230, which clarifies that social media companies aren’t publishers and therefore, shields them from key liabilities such as defamation for posts by users.There are 74 statutory inspector generals — government watchdogs — who audit federal departments and independent agencies.Those inspector generals already send reports to Congress on more than 20 different topics dealing with various deficiencies across the federal government.

Schmitt had served as Missouri’s Attorney General from 2019 until 2023 before getting elected to the US Senate.During that time as AG, he spearheaded the Missouri v.

Biden case, done in tandem with similar litigation out of Louisiana, that accused the Biden administration of colluding with Big Tech on censorship.Back in June, the Supreme Court rejected that challenge, concluding that the plaintiffs lacked standing in the matter.Schmitt and later his successor Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that the administration conspired to “coerce” social media platforms to strike down certain posts pert...