Congress demands federal agencies disclose advertising spending patterns
H.R. 5805 — Federal Government Advertising Equity Accountability Act · Filed by Eleanor Norton (D-DC) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Oct 21, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill requires federal agencies to report annually to Congress on how much they spend on advertising contracts, broken down by total spending and by spending with socially/economically disadvantaged small businesses, women-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses. The requirement starts with the fiscal year 2027 budget report and continues each year thereafter.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a mandatory disclosure requirement. It does not subsidize, restrict, or regulate advertising procurement — it simply requires agencies to report spending data to Congress, enabling oversight and informed policy debate.
What the text implies
- Reporting requirement may incentivize agencies to track and potentially increase contracting with disadvantaged small businesses, women-owned, and minority-owned firms if the data reveals disparities.
- Public disclosure of agency advertising spending may invite scrutiny of whether federal agencies are spending appropriately on advertising versus other priorities.
- Data may reveal patterns in which agencies rely most heavily on advertising contractors and which demographic groups receive the largest share of those contracts.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens and Congress gain transparency into how federal agencies spend taxpayer money on advertising and whether small, disadvantaged, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses are receiving equitable contract opportunities. Transparency enables democratic accountability and informed debate over federal spending priorities.
Named in the bill
Executive agencies (federal government), Small Business Administration (SBA), Socially and economically disadvantaged small business concerns, Women-owned businesses, Minority-owned businesses, Congress
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 7 Democrats.
- Oct 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Budget · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Budget”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,283 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-31.
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