[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 12996-12997]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

  SA 3458. Mr. WARNER proposed an amendment to amendment SA 3291 
proposed by Mr. Lautenberg to the bill S. 2400, to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2005 for military activities

[[Page 12997]]

of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe personnel 
strengths for such fiscal year for the Armed Services, and for other 
purposes; as follows:

       Strike the matter proposed to be inserted, and insert the 
     following:

     SEC. 364. MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES 
                   OF THE REMAINS OF DECEASED MEMBERS OF THE ARMED 
                   FORCES FROM OVERSEAS.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The Department of Defense, since 1991, has relied on a 
     policy of no media coverage of the transfers of the remains 
     of members Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, nor at Dover Air 
     Force Base, Delaware, and the Port Mortuary Facility at Dover 
     Air Force Base, nor at interim stops en route to the point of 
     final destination in the transfer of the remains.
       (2) The principal focus and purpose of the policy is to 
     protect the wishes and the privacy of families of deceased 
     members of the Armed Forces during their time of great loss 
     and grief and to give families and friends of the dead the 
     privilege to decide whether to allow media coverage at the 
     member's duty or home station, at the interment site, or at 
     or in connection with funeral and memorial services.
       (3) In a 1991 legal challenge to the Department of Defense 
     policy, as applied during Operation Desert Storm, the policy 
     was upheld by the United States District Court for the 
     District of Columbia, and on appeal, by the United States 
     Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in the case of 
     JB Pictures, Inc. v. Department of Defense and Donald B. 
     Rice, Secretary of the Air Force on the basis that denying 
     the media the right to view the return of remains at Dover 
     Air Force Base does not violate the first amendment 
     guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press.
       (4) The United States Court of Appeals for the District of 
     Columbia in that case cited the following two key Government 
     interests that are served by the Department of Defense 
     policy:
       (A) Reducing the hardship on the families and friends of 
     the war dead, who may feel obligated to travel great 
     distances to attend arrival ceremonies at Dover Air Force 
     Base if such ceremonies were held.
       (B) Protecting the privacy of families and friends of the 
     dead, who may not want media coverage of the unloading of 
     caskets at Dover Air Force Base.
       (5) The Court also noted, in that case, that the bereaved 
     may be upset at the public display of the caskets of their 
     loved ones and that the policy gives the family the right to 
     grant or deny access to the media at memorial or funeral 
     services at the home base and that the policy is consistent 
     in its concern for families.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the Department of Defense policy regarding no media coverage 
     of the transfer of the remains of deceased members of the 
     Armed Forces appropriately protects the privacy of the 
     members' families and friends of and is consistent with 
     United States constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech 
     and freedom of the press.

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