A bipartisan bill in Congress would expand online connectivity for people living in Iran by creating technical routes that circumvent the filtering and monitoring infrastructure maintained by the Iranian government. The legislation carries the title Internet Reach and Access Now — abbreviated as the IRAN Act — and was put forward by a group of House representatives.
Filed Thursday by Representatives Claudia Tenney of New York and Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, the bill takes aim at expanding online access inside Iran through a package of measures — tightening how federal agencies coordinate with one another, extending cybersecurity support, and directing more policy attention toward communications technologies that have emerged in recent years.
The legislation takes a non-military route, working through diplomatic and legal tools rather than armed force, to address a government whose record includes repeated connectivity blackouts during periods of public unrest.
The bill draws a distinction between Iran's governing authorities — who have publicly stated a goal of eliminating Israel and maintain ties to groups designated as terrorist organisations by the United States — and the broader Iranian population, which advocates say is seeking greater civil liberties and access to news from outside state-controlled outlets. In a statement tied to the bill's introduction, Tenney argued that Iranians should be able to communicate without restriction and reach independent sources of information, and that the authorities in Tehran rely on censorship tools, surveillance mechanisms, and internet shutdowns to keep that access out of reach.
The proposed legislation calls for periodic evaluations of internet-freedom programs directed at Iran, assessments of how those programs are being carried out, and formal briefings to Congress on the findings. Among the areas under review would be tools enabling people in Iran to circumvent state-imposed internet controls — among them VPN services, decentralised and peer-to-peer networking systems, and satellite technology capable of delivering connectivity directly to mobile devices.
The legislation would also broaden availability of protected digital tools and cybersecurity instruction for journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society groups. It further directs federal bodies to strengthen inter-agency coordination and examine whether existing sanctions regimes and export restrictions on technology might unintentionally limit Iranian civilians' ability to connect to the broader, uncensored internet.
Ansari contended that enabling people in Iran to communicate without surveillance represented a concrete form of support that stopped short of armed force, grounding the position in the view that open access to information and the freedom to express oneself rank among the basic entitlements of any person. Ansari's statement noted that Iran has a documented pattern of throttling or cutting off internet connectivity during periods of reported human rights violations, and that President Trump has publicly pledged support for the Iranian people.
The bill has drawn backing from legislators on both sides of the aisle. Among those named to the group of supporters were Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Maria Elvira Salazar and Nicole Malliotakis representing Florida and New York respectively on the Republican side, alongside Democrats including Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, André Carson of Indiana, Brad Schneider of Illinois, James Walkinshaw of Virginia, and Dave Min of California, with Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, and Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma rounding out the Republican contingent. One supporter argued that open internet access would deliver benefits to people without delay.
The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) has expressed support for the proposed legislation, contending that expanded satellite communication access, paired with stronger coordination among federal agencies, would give people in Iran a means of staying online when authorities cut off internet service. PAAIA cited the handling of protesters in January 2026 as an example of how internet restrictions can leave domestic events largely unmonitored by outside observers, reducing the avenues through which government actions may be scrutinised.
The group stated that broadening access to independent information could help Iranians pursue greater political freedoms, while also serving broader national security goals, adding that authorities had shown a pattern of cutting off internet access during periods of unrest. In a written statement, PAAIA noted that the revised IRAN Act would advance federal coordination on internet freedom, allow US policy in that area to adapt alongside new and evolving technologies, and work to maintain satellite communication access for people in Iran.
Funding for armed groups operating against Israel has formed one documented strand of Iranian foreign policy, alongside a broader posture toward that country that has remained adversarial across multiple dimensions. Broader flows of independent information and open communications channels carry the potential to shed light on how government policies play out domestically, even though the legislation under consideration targets online access rather than the country's military operations abroad.
Researchers and analysts have pointed to broader internet connectivity within Iran as a potential enabler of civic organising and political dissent, though the government in Tehran has moved to restrict such access. The legislation was filed in the wake of street protests in Iran and the government's response to them earlier that year.
Bazaar stalls and storefronts throughout Tehran went dark on 28 December, as traders chose to close their doors amid a deepening economic downturn — one marked by weakened household buying power, a shrinking domestic economy, and the rial trading at its steepest recorded depreciation following the reimposition of sanctions. What had started as street protests expanded into a wider movement demanding an overhaul of the country's governing structure.
Protests spanning roughly a fortnight drew global scrutiny to confrontations between demonstrators and security forces, prompting calls on authorities to halt the use of force against those gathered in the streets. A nationwide internet blackout, put in place by authorities, cut off tens of millions of residents from foreign news sources and independently produced reporting, while security forces moved to detain and break up gatherings of protesters and opposition figures.
Western officials and multiple reports indicate that, concentrated largely across January 8 and 9, tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the course of the crackdown, with tens of thousands of additional individuals taken into custody. Documented abuses included sexual violence, armed raids on medical facilities, the removal of injured protesters from those facilities, pressure applied to healthcare workers, demands for payment from families attempting to recover the bodies of the dead, coerced signatures on falsified cause-of-death documentation, and the imposition of restrictions on public mourning gatherings.
That April, as armed exchanges between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other continued, a nationwide internet cutoff within Iran stretched to a duration that surpassed any previously documented outage of its kind.
The proposal put forward by Tenney and Ansari draws on prior American work to evaluate technologies with the potential to route around state-controlled communications infrastructure. Satellite connectivity has taken on a larger role in the bill's agenda, driven by demand for communication options that remain functional when standard internet access is cut off or otherwise blocked.
How far the policy reaches in practice will hinge on three interlocking factors: whether the rollout is handled effectively, whether dependable tools are actually in place, and whether people in Iran can make use of those tools without putting themselves at risk of being monitored or facing reprisals.
