The Mundt–Ferguson Communist Registration Bill was a proposed law that would have required all members of the Communist Party of the United States register with the Attorney General.

The bill was first introduced in 1948 as house resolution 5852, at which time it was known as the Mundt-Nixon bill It was passed by the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

, but the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 did not act on it.

It was re-introduced two years later, as the Mundt-Ferguson bill (also known as the Subversive Activities Control Bill) and met with a similar fate - it was passed by the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. Pat McCarran

Pat McCarran

Patrick Anthony McCarran was a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954, and was noted for his strong anti-Communist stance.-Early life and career:...

 then took many of the provisions from the Mundt-Ferguson bill and added them to a bill of his own writing. That bill, the McCarran Internal Security Act

McCarran Internal Security Act

The Internal Security Act of 1950, , also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act or the McCarran Act, after Senator Pat McCarran , is a United States federal law of the McCarthy era. It was passed over President Harry Truman's veto...

, passed by a large margin.