S.Amdt. 3124

SA 3124. Mr. CARDIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle D of title XII, add the following:

SEC. 1266. SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT MEDIA AND COUNTERING
FOREIGN INFORMATION OPERATIONS.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds that the PRC is increasing
its spending on public diplomacy, including influence
campaigns, advertising, and investments into state-sponsored
media publications outside of the PRC. This includes, for
example, more than $10,000,000,000 in foreign direct
investment in communications infrastructure, platforms, and
properties, as well as bringing journalists to the PRC for
training programs.
(b) The United States Agency for Global Media.--The United
States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and affiliate Federal
and non-Federal entities shall, consistent with the other
executive branch undertakings in this Act led by the
President or the Secretary of State, undertake the following
actions to support independent journalism, counter foreign
malign influence, and combat surveillance in countries where
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other malign actors are
promoting foreign information operations, propaganda, and
manipulated media markets:
(1) Radio Free Asia (RFA) shall expand coverage and digital
programming in China for all China services and other
affiliate language broadcasting services.
(2) RFA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) shall
seek to increase funding for Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur,
Cantonese, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek language
services.
(3) Voice of America shall continue the bilingual Asia Fact
Check Lab, established in 2022, and expand on the Jiehuang
Pindao initiative to continue identifying and exposing PRC
information operations.
(4) USAGM shall expand existing training and partnership
programs that promote journalistic standards, investigative
reporting, cybersecurity, and digital analytics to help
expose and counter false CCP narratives.
(5) The Open Technology Fund shall continue its work to
support tools and technology to circumvent censorship and
surveillance by the CCP, both inside the PRC as well as
abroad where the PRC has exported censorship technology, and
increase secure peer-to-peer connectivity and privacy tools.
(6) Voice of America shall continue its mission of
providing accurate, objective, and comprehensive news as well
as presenting the policies of the United States clearly and
effectively.
(7) RFE/RL shall establish an investigative unit dedicated
to working across Central Asia to develop multimedia
responses to local information operation efforts by the CCP
and other malign actors.
(8) The networks and grantees of the United States Agency
for Global Media shall continue their mission of providing
credible and timely news coverage, including on the PRC's
malign behavior and activities across the world.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated, for each of fiscal years 2025 through
2029 for the United States Agency for Global Media,
$180,000,000 for ongoing and new programs to support local
media, build independent media, combat PRC information
operations inside and outside of China, invest in technology
to subvert censorship, and monitor and evaluate these
programs, of which funds shall be directed to--
(1) RFA to expand--
(A) its China language services (including Mandarin,
Cantonese, Uyghur, and Tibetan);
(B) its coverage in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands
to counter the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda; and
(C) its Global Mandarin digital brand WHYNOT/Wainao, which
engages Chinese-speaking populations both inside China and
around the world;
(2) RFE/RL to increase Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and
Uzbek language services; and
(3) the Open Technology Fund for digital media services--
(A) to counter propaganda targeting non-Chinese populations
in foreign countries; and
(B) to counter propaganda targeting Chinese-speaking
populations in China through ``Global Mandarin'' programming.
(d) Authorization.--The United States Agency for Global
Media is authorized to provide for the establishment of, and
grants to, two non-profit organizations constituted on the
model of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia
that shall be named ``Radio Free Africa'' and ``Radio Free
Americas'' for the purposes of providing accurate,
uncensored, and reliable local news and information to the
regions of Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean,
respectively.
(e) Support for Local Media.--The Secretary of State,
acting through the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, the
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor and in coordination with the Administrator of the
United States Agency for International Development, shall
support civil society and foreign media organizations in the
implementation of programs to train foreign media personnel
on investigative techniques, provide journalist protection,
improve media literacy among the school-aged and general
populations, boost access to accurate and reliable news and
information generally, as well as other media-related
activities in order to ensure public accountability related
to the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development
Initiative, the PRC's use of and export of surveillance and
other technologies, and other influence operations abroad
direct or directly supported by the Chinese Communist Party
or the Government of the PRC.
(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated to the Department of State, for each of
fiscal years 2025 through 2029, $100,000,000 for ongoing and
new programs in support of press freedom, training, media
literacy, and protection of journalists.
______