House and Senate negotiators announced on May 3 an agreement to include an amendment in a major appropriations bill to bar federal agencies from producing video news releases that don’t clearly identify their sponsorship.

A Senate Appropriations Committee summary said the provision, originally promoted by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WVa., says: “No funds can be used for producing or distributing news stories by the federal government without identifying the government as the source of the information.”

The amendment was included in an $82 billion emergency appropriations bill for the Defense Department and the war on terrorism.