About the bill
Would government support of private media violate the spirit of the First Amendment?
Context
The journalism industry’s 21st century metrics, such as subscriptions and employment, show that this era was hardly proven the industry’s most profitable even before the pandemic hit. But with the addition of the economic crash of 2020, the financial situation is particularly precarious for many publications. Local publications have fared particularly poorly.
What the bill does
The Local Journalism Sustainability Act would create three federal tax credits to encourage local media. The bill defines a local publication as one where the majority of the readership resides within a 200 mile radius.
- A tax credit for a subscription to a local newspaper, worth up to $250 per year.
- A tax credit to encourage local …
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced on July 16, 2020, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
78 Cosponsors (58 Democrats, 20 Republicans)
History
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Jul 16, 2020
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Jun 16, 2021
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, H.R. 3940 (117th). |
H.R. 7640 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 7640. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
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“H.R. 7640 — 116th Congress: Local Journalism Sustainability Act.” www.GovTrack.us. 2020. June 1, 2023 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7640>
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
