← U.S. Student PlanPillar I · Dismantling Institutional Capture

04

Algorithmic Transparency & Local Media Trust

Curb consolidated media and tech monopolies without partisan censorship battles.

Passage watch

Proposed · not introduced

0 / 6 milestones

  1. 01 · Pending

    Introduced

    A sponsor files the legislation and an official bill record is created.

  2. 02 · Pending

    Committee review

    The relevant committee considers the legislation.

  3. 03 · Pending

    House passage

    The House approves the bill or the legislative vehicle carrying its provisions.

  4. 04 · Pending

    Senate passage

    The Senate approves the bill or its legislative vehicle.

  5. 05 · Pending

    Final text agreed

    Both chambers approve the same final text.

  6. 06 · Pending

    Becomes law

    The legislation is signed into law or enacted over a veto.

Latest progress

This Student Plan proposal has not been introduced. No congressional passage milestones are complete.

Plan baseline · · Not an official Congress update

Official record · awaiting introduction

No verified Congress.gov record is linked. H.R. numbers in the blueprint are proposed labels, not confirmed bill identifiers. Official action updates are unavailable until an introduced bill is matched.

Congress.gov

What the bill does

  1. 1

    Require major social platforms to open their engagement algorithms to independent safety auditors.

  2. 2

    Allow users to opt out of algorithmic feeds.

  3. 3

    Tighten FCC local-ownership caps to stop private equity from gutting local journalism.

Why it matters

Serbia's students fought state-captured broadcasters; the American REM is a dual monopoly — Silicon Valley engagement algorithms that profit off partisan rage, and private equity syndicates that buy up and gut local newspapers. Break the machinery that manufactures division and buries local truth, or it will suffocate every other reform. Transparency, not censorship, keeps the plank non-partisan: open-source safety audits, user-controlled feed opt-outs, and saving hometown papers from Wall Street vultures.

The legislative blueprint

Phase 1 — House Floor Forcing Function (Spring 2029)

  • Rules Package Lock

    Pre-scheduled under Section 5 ("Orders of Business") of the 121st Congress House Rules Package (H.Res. 5) for a standalone, unamendable roll-call vote before April 15, 2029.

  • The Cross-Partisan Wedge

    Bill 4 bypasses partisan censorship wars entirely. It unites populist Republicans (who distrust Big Tech black-box shadowbanning) and progressives (who oppose billionaire media consolidation and algorithmic mental-health harms) around a clean right-to-know framework: open-source safety audits, user-controlled feed opt-outs, and saving hometown newspapers from Wall Street vultures.

Phase 2 — Bypassing the 60-Vote Senate Filibuster (Two-Track Pincer)

  • Track A — 51-Vote Budget Reconciliation (The Financial Hammer)

    The 25-member House Accountability Caucus withholds its votes on the Concurrent Budget Resolution until reconciliation instructions strip interest-deduction tax subsidies from private equity firms acquiring local newspapers or broadcast stations. Simultaneously, it levies a steep excise tax on opaque algorithmic ad-targeting revenue, routing those billions directly into a self-funding Local Journalism Payroll Credit.

  • Track B — Must-Pass Legislative Trains (NDAA & FCC Spectrum Reauthorization)

    For the strictly regulatory rules — requiring major social platforms to open-source engagement algorithms to independent safety auditors, mandating a single-click chronological feed opt-out, and tightening FCC local-ownership caps — the Caucus attaches them as inseparable riders to the NDAA Cyber & Information Security Title (framed around protecting youth mental health and preventing foreign algorithmic manipulation) and must-pass FCC Spectrum Auction Reauthorizations.

Phase 3 — Appropriations Enforcement & Field Pressure

  • FSGG Limitation Riders

    Using its 3 blocking seats on the House Rules Committee, the Caucus attaches binding limitation riders to the annual Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill (which funds the FCC and FTC): "None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Federal Communications Commission to approve any broadcast license transfer or waiver that increases corporate or private-equity consolidation above strict local ownership caps."

  • Decentralized "Studio Plenum" Audits

    When telecom or Big Tech lobbyists pressure a Senator to strip Point 4 in conference committee, the Statewide Megaplenum's communication and journalism departments launch localized digital and print blitzes in every county of that Senator's state — publishing the exact list of local newspapers shuttered by private equity and every dollar of Big Tech PAC money that Senator has taken.