WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation on Wednesday to bar government officials from pressuring private companies to censor speech, citing threats from the Trump administration against late-night talk shows as evidence of efforts to stifle free expression.
The measure would allow citizens to sue federal employees who pressure private companies into suppressing speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees free expression. Both Republicans and Democrats on the committee said the bill was needed to curb government overreach.
The committee approved the bill 18-10. It must still pass the full Senate, where it is unclear when it may be taken up, and the U.S. House of Representatives to become law.
Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the panel, said the bill, if it had been in effect, would have allowed Disney-owned ABC's late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel to file suit after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr last year pressured station owners to stop airing Kimmel's show following remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz cited actions by the administration of then-President Joe Biden that he said were intended to pressure private companies to censor speech protected by the First Amendment. He said the Biden administration sought to pressure Big Tech firms into "canceling Americans who spoke out against vaccine mandates and election fraud."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the bill would have prevented Carr "from threatening the broadcast licenses of television stations that continued to air Jimmy Kimmel's show after he made remarks the White House did not like."
U.S. President Donald Trump has called repeatedly for ABC to lose its licenses over programming he dislikes. The reviews were ordered in April a day after Trump urged ABC to fire Kimmel.
Trump this month called for the FCC to rebuke or punish Comcast-owned NBC's journalist Kristen Welker after she noted that the Republican president's success in endorsing political candidates has been mixed.
Last year, Cruz sharply criticized Carr days after he threatened the licenses of Disney and local broadcasters, saying Carr's comments were "dangerous as hell."
"I got to say that's right out of 'Goodfellas'," Cruz said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. "That's right out of a Mafioso coming into a bar going, 'Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it.'"
Disney and a spokesperson for Carr did not immediately comment.
Carr in April ordered early review of licenses for the entertainment giant's eight company-owned ABC stations even though they were not scheduled to be considered before October 2028. The FCC had not ordered an early review in more than 50 years before April.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)