[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 325 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 325

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the President 
 should retain a protective pool of reporters for purposes of covering 
    the official business of the President, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 16, 2017

   Mr. Raskin (for himself and Ms. Jayapal) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and 
                           Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the President 
 should retain a protective pool of reporters for purposes of covering 
    the official business of the President, and for other purposes.

Whereas the President of the United States is elected by the American people to 
        serve as the head of our Government and the Commander in Chief of the 
        Armed Forces;
Whereas the President's movements and actions are of special interest to the 
        American people and broadly available knowledge of those movements and 
        actions serves the public interest;
Whereas the First Amendment of the Constitution protects the freedom of the 
        press;
Whereas members of the press serve the public interest by reporting on the 
        movements and activities of the President each day;
Whereas the protective press pool began during the administration of President 
        Dwight Eisenhower under the direction of Press Secretary James Hagerty 
        to allow reporters to bring more steady press coverage to the 
        President's actions;
Whereas the protective press pool has played a critical role in reporting on 
        events of national significance and events affecting the President, and 
        the press pool has provided important and emergency communication with 
        the American public;
Whereas the protective press pool provided critical information to the American 
        public during and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 
        in 1963;
Whereas the protective press pool was able to report on the attempted 
        assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981;
Whereas the protective press pool played a critical role on 9/11 in reporting on 
        the movements and safety of the President, the continuity of Government 
        and the unfolding details of the attack and response;
Whereas the protective press pool traditionally travels across the world with 
        the President to allow Americans to stay informed, reports on behalf of 
        a broad array of reporters in the press corps, and ensures that 
        Americans do not miss unexpected major developments;
Whereas President Donald Trump has repeatedly vilified and undermined the free 
        and independent American press during various stages of his campaign and 
        Presidency;
Whereas President Donald Trump refers to media reporting as ``fake news'' and 
        attempts to undermine reporting on the activities of the White House;
Whereas President Trump has repeatedly avoided the protective press pool in a 
        way that departs from presidential history and best practices;
Whereas, on May 12, 2017, President Trump categorically barred members of the 
        American press corps from an Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign 
        Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the United States 
        Sergey Kislyak, while allowing members of Russia's state-owned news 
        agency Tass to attend and photograph the meeting;
Whereas, on May 12, 2017, in responding to news reports about the controversy 
        surrounding his firing of FBI Director James Comey, President Trump 
        tweeted about ``cancel[ing] all future press briefings and hand[ing] out 
        written responses . . .''; and
Whereas it is necessary for the House of Representatives to reassert the primacy 
        of the First Amendment and the necessity of a free and independent press 
        to inform the public: Now, therefore be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the President should--
            (1) allow the establishment of a protective press pool and 
        allow reporting on the activities of the Presidency not later 
        than 30 days after the President assumes office;
            (2) grant the protective press pool access to the 
        President, appropriate and timely notification of and access to 
        the President's official activities, access to information 
        related to motorcade movements, schedules of official actions;
            (3) provide the protective press pool with access to 
        sufficient information to ensure that the American people are 
        informed accurately and in a timely way on the President's 
        whereabouts in the event of domestic or foreign emergencies and 
        to ensure that the public has broad and honest information 
        about issues of public concern; and
            (4) preserve the independence of press coverage of matters 
        relating to the President.
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