McCarthy Receptive to Measure Requiring State Media Outlets Covering House to Register as Foreign Agents: GOP Lawmaker

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks at a bill signing ceremony for H.J. Res. 26 at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on March 10, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has been receptive to a measure that would require foreign state media outlets to register with the Department of Justice as foreign agents in order to cover the House, according to Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.).

“There’s a positive vibe coming out of the Speaker’s office,” Bergman told The Epoch Times on March 22. “Now I’ve got to talk to the Rules Committee and make sure we got the I’s [dotted] and T’s crossed. So yes, we’re getting support of the Speaker’s office.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to McCarthy’s office for comment.

The resolution, introduced by Bergman on March 1, would require “foreign state media outlets with credentialed members in the House news media galleries to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act [FARA] by prohibiting the admission into such galleries of reporters and correspondents who are representatives of such outlets who are not in compliance with the requirements of such Act, and for other purposes.”

FARA requires individuals and entities lobbying or advocating on behalf of foreign governments to register with the DOJ as foreign agents.

The resolution would mandate that a foreign state media outlet could not have more than 10 reporters or correspondents in the House gallery and that they would have to go through FBI background checks.

“Whereas while the extraordinary access inside Capitol Hill granted to credentialed members of the media helps facilitate accurate reporting to the American public, it is also the kind of access coveted by foreign powers seeking sensitive information from inside Congress, and those with state-sponsored media outlets currently can easily obtain such access, even if they openly flout United States laws,” stated the resolution.

The measure calls out foreign state media outlets including China News Service and Qatar-backed Al Jazeera, which includes AJ+, a social media publisher. None of those outlets are registered under FARA. In September 2020, the DOJ required AJ+ to register under FARA.

“Our extensive research exposes Al Jazeera’s AJ+ as no more than a tool for Qatari propaganda targeting young Americans,” said Marc Greendorfer, founder and president of Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank and advocacy organization combating antisemitism. “AJ+ operates exclusively online and maintains accounts on all major social media platforms, with followers numbering in the millions. Its content has been collectively viewed over 17 billion times since its launch in 2014.”

According to a report released on March 22 by the Zachor Legal Institute and acquired by The Epoch Times, “a content analysis of AJ+ reveals that the Qatar-owned brand appears to function in a manner resembling a propaganda outlet by promoting anti-American, anti-West, anti-Israel, divisive, and polarizing content designed to intensify divisions within the U.S.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Al Jazeera for their reaction to the report and Bergman’s measure.