House Republicans are trying to “keep the public in the dark” by blocking a new rule that requires broadcasters to post political ad data online, according to the media reform group Free Press.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a measure in April that requires broadcasters to provide information about political ad buys — including advertising rates — on the Internet. Previously, the rule only required the files to be available to the public. However, in almost all cases anyone who wanted access to them had to physically visit the stations.

A House Appropriations subcommittee approved the 2013 Financial Services bill on Wednesday, which includes a provision to block the new FCC rule. Democrats tried to strip the provision from the bill, but lost a party-line vote.

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