HouseH.R. 9279119th Congress
Preventing AI Censorship Act
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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9279 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9279
To provide for a right of action against Federal employees for
violations of First Amendment rights relating to the use or development
of artificial intelligence.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 11, 2026
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for a right of action against Federal employees for
violations of First Amendment rights relating to the use or development
of artificial intelligence.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Preventing AI Censorship Act''.
SEC. 2. RIGHT OF ACTION AGAINST FEDERAL EMPLOYEES FOR VIOLATIONS OF
FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE.
(a) In General.--A Federal employee who, under color of any
statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of the United States,
engages in covered conduct thereby subjecting, or causing to be
subjected, any citizen of the United States to the deprivation of any
rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the First Amendment, shall
be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or
other proper proceeding for redress.
(b) Exception.--This Act does not authorize a Federal employee to
bring a suit against their Federal employer or the Federal Government
for conduct that is within the scope of the employment relationship.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit any otherwise lawful
law enforcement activity conducted pursuant to a valid warrant, court
order, or other judicial authorization.
(c) Attorney's Fees.--In any action or proceeding to enforce this
Act, the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party,
other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of
the costs.
(d) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act may be construed to
limit the ability of an injured party to seek damages, injunctive
relief, or any other form of redress for the deprivation of any rights,
privileges, or immunities secured by the First Amendment, or by any
other provision of the Constitution.
(e) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``Federal employee'' means an individual,
other than the President or the Vice President, who occupies a
position in any agency or instrumentality of the executive
branch (including any independent agency).
(2) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning as
outlined in section 5002 of the National Artificial
Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).
(3) The term ``artificial intelligence provider'' means any
person or entity that develops, deploys, operates, hosts, or
maintains artificial intelligence, whether for compensation or
without charge.
(4) The term ``covered conduct'' means--
(A) any action by a Federal employee to coerce,
compel, direct, induce, or encourage an artificial
intelligence provider to:
(i) ban, suppress, remove, alter, or
otherwise restrict content, outputs, or
responses generated by artificial intelligence
based on viewpoint, partisan affiliation,
religious belief or practice, ideology,
perceived truth or falsity, or perceived bias;
(ii) modify the training data, model
weights, fine-tuning procedures, system
prompts, safety classifiers, or operational
parameters of artificial intelligence for the
purpose of filtering, distorting, or
suppressing expression based on viewpoint,
partisan affiliation, religious belief or
practice, ideology, perceived truth or falsity,
or perceived bias;
(iii) deny, degrade, restrict, or alter
access to artificial intelligence, or provide a
materially inferior quality of service through
artificial intelligence, to any person based on
that person's viewpoint, political affiliation,
religious belief or practice, ideology,
perceived truth or falsity, or perceived bias;
or
(iv) collect, retain, report, or disclose
information about a user's prompts, queries, or
interactions with artificial intelligence to
any Federal agency or employee, where such
collection, retention, or disclosure is
undertaken for the purpose of, or with the
reasonably foreseeable effect of, surveilling,
chilling, or penalizing that user's lawful
expression; or
(B) any action by a Federal employee to directly
interfere with an individual's lawful use of artificial
intelligence.
(f) Severability.--If any provision of this Act or the application
of a provision of this Act to any person or circumstance is held to be
unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, and the application of the
provisions to any person or circumstance, shall not be affected
thereby.
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