Open Technology Fund

Grants authorized under section 6204 of this title shall be available to make annual grants for the purpose of promoting, consistent with United States law, unrestricted access to uncensored sources of information via the internet to enable journalists, including journalists employed by or affiliated with the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, or any entity funded by or partnering with the United States Agency for Global Media, to create and disseminate, and for their audiences to receive, news and information consistent with the purposes, standards, and principles specified in sections 6201 and 6202 of this title. There is established a grantee entity to be known as the “Open Technology Fund”, which shall carry out the provisions of this section. In furtherance of the mission set forth in subsection (a), the Open Technology Fund shall seek to advance freedom of the press and unrestricted access to the internet in repressive environments oversees, and shall— research, develop, implement, and maintain— In carrying out subsection (b), the Open Technology Fund shall— Any grant agreement with or grants made to the Open Technology Fund under this section shall be subject to the following limitations and restrictions: The Open Technology Fund shall be subject to the same oversight and governance by the United States Agency for Global Media as other grantees of the Agency as set forth in section 6204 of this title. The United States Agency for Global Media, its broadcast entities, and the Open Technology Fund should render assistance to each other as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this section or any other provision of this chapter. Nothing in this section may be construed to make the Open Technology Fund a Federal agency or instrumentality. Under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act [42 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.], employees of a grantee of the United States Agency for Global Media may be detailed to the Agency, and Federal employees may be detailed to a grantee of the United States Agency for Global Media. The United States Agency for Global Media shall ensure that internet freedom research and development projects of the Open Technology Fund are coordinated with internet freedom programs of the Department of State and other relevant United States Government departments, in order to share information and best-practices relating to the implementation of subsections (b) and (c). The Open Technology Fund shall highlight, in its annual report, internet freedom activities, including a comprehensive assessment of the Open Technology Fund’s activities relating to the implementation of subsections (b) and (c). Each such report shall include the following: Not later than two years after January 1, 2021, the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Foreign Service shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the following: Financial transactions of the Open Technology Fund, as such relate to functions carried out under this section, may be audited by the Government Accountability Office in accordance with such principles and procedures and under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States. Any such audit shall be conducted at the place or places at which accounts of the Open Technology Fund are normally kept. The Government Accountability Office shall have access to all books, accounts, records, reports, files, papers, and property belonging to or in use by the Open Technology Fund pertaining to financial transactions as may be necessary to facilitate an audit. The Government Accountability Office shall be afforded full facilities for verifying transactions with any assets held by depositories, fiscal agents, and custodians. All such books, accounts, records, reports, files, papers, and property of the Open Technology Fund shall remain in the possession and custody of the Open Technology Fund. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Foreign Service is authorized to exercise the authorities of the Inspector General Act of 1978 with respect to the Open Technology Fund.