Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Bolster Transparency of Political Advertising

Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and John Yarmuth (D-KY) introduced the Fair and Clear Campaign (FCC) Transparency Act (H.R.5897) to require the Federal Communications Commission to modernize reporting requirements related to political advertising aired by broadcasters by making reports machine-readable. The FCC currently requires TV and radio broadcast stations to publicly report broadcast time sold or given away for political advertising. However, broadcasters are not required to submit this information in a standardized format, which means the data is unstructured and cannot easily be analyzed by researchers, watchdog organizations, or the public. This bicameral legislation directs the FCC to require broadcasters to submit political advertising information in a machine-readable format to allow analysis of this information that can inform the public of how political advertising dollars are being spent. Sen Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) sponsored the FCC Transparency Act in the Senate.