To express the sense of the House of Representatives that all briefings held by the President or Federal agencies should be made available to the press, except for under circumstances that are consistent with Federal law.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 325 To express the sense of the House of Representatives that all briefings held by the President or Federal agencies should be made available to the press, except for under circumstances that are consistent with Federal law. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 18, 2019 Ms. WILD (for herself, Mr. CISNEROS, Ms. GABBARD, Mr. CRIST, Ms. NOR- TON, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. RUSH, and Mrs. TRAHAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform RESOLUTION To express the sense of the House of Representatives that all briefings held by the President or Federal agencies should be made available to the press, except for under circumstances that are consistent with Federal law. Whereas colonial America endured oppressive media censor- ship at the hands of Great Britain, including the prohibi- tion of unfavorable information and opinions in colonial newspapers; Whereas American free press ideals can be traced back to a collection of essays known as Cato’s Letters, which criti- cized British corruption and tyranny, and which armed the public with critical information that eventually VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR325.IH HR325 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 325 IH formed the basis for America’s revolution and independ- ence; Whereas in 1776, Virginia became the first state to formally protect the press by a Declaration of Rights declaring ‘‘[t]he freedom of the Press is one of the greatest bul- warks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by des- potic Governments’’; Whereas our founding fathers memorialized the efficacy of a free press by expressly protecting the press in our First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which Justice Potter Stewart once described as the ‘‘only orga- nized private business that is given explicit constitutional protection’’; Whereas starting in 1902, the press moved into the first White House press room—a move that was ‘‘more than just convenience’’ and signaled that the press was ‘‘no longer there just as guests of the President [but] [t]hey were filling a public function’’; Whereas the White House Correspondents Association was founded to ‘‘keep a daily watch on the administration’’; Whereas courts have consistently interpreted the First Amendment in such a way so as to prohibit ‘‘prior re- straints,’’ or government actions that attempt to enjoin publication except in exceptional cases where the press would cause ‘‘inevitable, direct, and immediate danger to the United States’’; Whereas courts have routinely rejected viewpoint discrimina- tion and have consistently prioritized the need for a free and robust press when weighing competing constitutional interests; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR325.IH HR325 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 325 IH Whereas a free press has long provided a vital national serv- ice by, inter alia, reporting on the Watergate scandal that enveloped the Nixon Administration and exposed perva- sive corruption that existed within the Executive Branch; Whereas courts historically disfavor government censorship of a free press, including when the United States Supreme Court ruled that the government could not enjoin the press from publishing newsworthy content based on vague pronouncements of ‘‘national security’’ and Justice Black stated, ‘‘[o]nly a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government . . . para- mount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiv- ing the people . . .’’; Whereas courts have held that once the White House press facilities have been made publicly available to the press— as they have been for generations—the protection af- forded news gathering under the First Amendment re- quires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons; Whereas a free press is essential to democratic legitimacy and longevity, and past administrations have adhered to tra- ditions and norms by holding regular open press brief- ings; Whereas today’s press has been called the ‘‘enemy of the peo- ple’’; Whereas the revocation of press credentials of certain mem- bers of the press without proffering compelling reasons or evidence to justify that revocation threatens the very principles upon which this nation was founded; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR325.IH HR325 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 325 IH Whereas the public and the press have sincere interest in key department and agency meetings, briefings, and activi- ties, and briefings have been held that exclude secular media without the proffering of compelling reasons or evi- dence to justify that exclusion; Whereas U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. Dis- trict Court for the District of Columbia rejected argu- ments that the Executive Branch has absolute discretion in deciding who is entitled to participate in a press brief- ing; and Whereas U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the U.S. Dis- trict Court for the Southern District of New York has held that it is impermissible ‘‘to exclude a single . . . news network . . . and to withhold White House press passes in a content-based or arbitrary fashion’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep- 1 resentatives that all briefings held by the President or 2 Federal agencies should be made available to the press, 3 except for under circumstances that are consistent with 4 Federal law. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:09 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR325.IH HR325 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS