H.R. 9279

[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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