Bill > HR4179

This bill, titled the Fair and Clear Campaign Transparency Act, directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create rules requiring various media entities, including television and radio stations, cable operators, and satellite providers, to make their online public inspection files available in a "machine-readable" format. This means the files, which contain important information like records of requests to purchase broadcast time for political ads or messages on national political issues, must be in a format that computers can easily search, download in bulk, combine, sort, and analyze. The bill aims to improve transparency and accessibility of this data, building on previous efforts to put this information online but acknowledging that the data was not initially required to be in a format that allowed for easy analysis.