Congress must immediately hold hearings on the Honest Ads Act

In light of Special Counsel Robert Mueller announcing indictments against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for committing federal crimes as they interfered in U.S. elections and political processes, Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee issued the following statement:

“Today’s indictments show the urgency for Congress to hold hearings on the Honest Ads Act as soon as possible. The United States does not have the tools needed to fight foreign interference in our elections. This carefully crafted bipartisan, bicameral legislation is the best place to start as Congress works toward that goal.”

The Honest Ads Act seeks to combat the problem of hidden foreign disinformation campaigns by implementing a commonsense disclosure system for paid, online political advertising, closely modeled on longstanding Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules for paid political advertising on television and radio.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, the Honest Ads Act (H.R. 4077) is sponsored by 16 Republicans and Democrats. They include:

In the U.S. Senate, the Honest Ads Act (S. 1989) was introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), ranking member on the Senate Rules Committee who also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Senator John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence. It also has 16 sponsors.