Led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), several GOP senators introduced legislation Tuesday to "prohibit the use of Federal funds" in financing the Biden administration's recently announced Disinformation Governance Board.
“The Biden administration wants a government agency dedicated to cracking down on what its subjects can say, an idea popular with Orwellian governments everywhere," Cotton said in a press release.
"This board is unconstitutional and un-American — my bill puts a stop to it,” he added.
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The bill provides that "no Federal funds may be used to establish or support the activities of a Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security, or any other similar entity established in the Department of Homeland Security."
Joining as cosponsors are Sens. Todd Young, John Boozman, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Jim Risch, Roger Marshall, Mike Crapo, Mike Lee, Thom Tillis, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Marsha Blackburn, Joni Ernst, Cynthia Lummis, Marco Rubio, Mike Braun, John Kennedy, James Lankford, and Kevin Cramer.
“The idea that a ‘disinformation board’ of unelected government bureaucrats should enforce speech rules is both radical and unconstitutional," Young said, adding that it "should be shut down immediately."
Blackburn slammed the board as “nothing more than a partisan ploy to silence dissent the Democratic party objects to," adding, "My legislation prevents the Biden administration from getting away with this unconstitutional attempt to use taxpayer dollars to squash free speech.”
“All Americans should distrust any government plan to monitor and control what they say or don’t say,” Hyde-Smith warned. “Officials with the Biden administration swear this board won’t censor Americans, but their testimony and other statements make it clear that’s not true. This is an unconstitutional and terrible idea that needs to be stopped immediately.”
“Government agencies are never and should never be the sole voice of truth. The role of government is to act on behalf of the people, not tell them what to think. This is completely unconstitutional and against everything I stand for as an American. The bill fights back against the Biden Administration’s totalitarian rule to give power back to the people,” said Cramer.
"No tax dollars should fund this ridiculous and flagrant attempt to undermine our First Amendment," Lankford said. "DHS owes the American people an answer on who orchestrated this overstep and why.”
“Joe Biden is using DHS to create thought police and it should scare the living daylights out of every American. The president claims to care about fighting disinformation, but he and his administration have repeatedly lied to the American people and even called on social media companies to censor and silence American voices," Scott added.
"We must defund this board in order to stop it dead in its tracks and prevent the Biden administration from finding another way to inject government into our lives,” said Marshall.
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The board, an extension of the Department of Homeland Security, faced immediate scrutiny, with many critics comparing it to the dystopian novel 1984. Others questioned the choice of Nina Jankowicz to head the board, as she has previously misled the public on the debunked Steele dossier and cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop story.