To provide for the issuance of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award to journalists who accompanied units of the United States Armed Forces or coalition partners into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, a process referred to as "embedding", in order to provide first-hand and timely reports on the progress of the United States and coalition forces and the liberation of the Iraqi people.

Summary: Directs the Secretary of Defense to award the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award to journalists who accompanied units of the U.S. armed forces or of a coalition partner into Iraq to report on Operation Iraqi Freedom.

SECTION 1. RECOGNITION OF JOURNALISTS EMBEDDED WITH UNITED STATES ARMED 
              FORCES OR COALITION PARTNERS IN IRAQ DURING OPERATION 
              IRAQI FREEDOM.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
        States establishes the right to free speech and a press 
        unfettered by Government interference and reflected the belief 
        of the American people that an informed public is essential to 
        the survival of democracy.
            (2) The press, in all its forms today, informs the public 
        on news events in the United States and elsewhere in the world 
        and acts as a check on excessive Government actions by 
        facilitating feedback to the legislative, executive, and 
        judicial branches of Government.
            (3) Journalists first began serving as war correspondents 
        during the Crimean War in 1854, and, by the next decade, more 
        than 500 journalists covered the activities of the contending 
        armies during the American Civil War, capturing the interest of 
        Americans in the conflict and establishing the tradition of 
        newspaper readership in America.
            (4) During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Department of 
        Defense provided journalists with the opportunity to actually 
        accompany units of the United States Armed Forces and coalition 
        partners, a process referred to as ``embedding'', in order to 
        provide first-hand and timely reports on the progress of the 
        United States and coalition forces and the liberation of the 
        Iraqi people.
            (5) Approximately 700 print, broadcast, and Internet 
        journalists chose to receive the special training offered by 
        the Department of Defense to prepare for the dangers and 
        hardships of accompanying troops in possible combat and 
        embedded themselves with units of the United States Armed 
        Forces or coalition partners.
            (6) Journalists have often worked under censorship in the 
        past, but the embedded journalists were free to cover the 
        conflict without interference from the military, and provided 
        generally accurate accounts despite the omnipresent ``fog of 
        war'' on a real-time basis for the first time in history.
            (7) The relationship between journalists and the military 
        has often been strained in times of war, but the conflict in 
        Iraq proved that both sides could meet their individual goals 
        without restricting or impeding the other.
            (8) Many of the embedded journalists made their satellite 
        phones and email available to members of the Armed Forces who 
        were able to communicate with their families for the first time 
        in weeks and sometimes months.
            (9) Friends and families of members of the Armed Forces 
        serving in Iraq in units that included an embedded journalist 
        were able to track the progress of these units and were often 
        reassured that their loved ones were still alive because of the 
        journalist's reports.
            (10) The embedded journalists, while in-theater, endured 
        the same privations as the members of the Armed Forces they 
        covered and risked possible imprisonment, torture, and 
        execution if captured by Iraqi forces.
            (11) The embedded journalists braved excessive and 
        sometimes fatal weather conditions, including horrific 
        sandstorms that reduce visibility to four or five feet and 
        temperatures higher than 130 degrees Fahrenheit, but still 
        filed their dispatches each day.
            (12) At least 14 journalists have died while covering the 
        conflict in Iraq, and other journalists have died in 
        Afghanistan.
            (13) The American people are best served by a robust and 
        competitive media that provides accurate and fair accounts of 
        United States Armed Forces wherever they may be.
    (b) Official Recognition of Embedded Journalists.--The Secretary of 
Defense shall award the Office of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional 
Public Service Award to journalists who were authorized by the 
Department of Defense to accompany, and actually accompanied into Iraq, 
a unit of the United States Armed Forces or of a coalition partner 
during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
    (c) Posthumous Award.--If a person entitled to the Office of the 
Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award under subsection 
(b) died while serving in Iraq or dies before the issuance of the 
award, the award shall be provided to the person's representative, as 
designated by the Secretary.
    (d) Availability of Appropriations.--The Secretary may expend, from 
any appropriation for contingent expenses of the Department of Defense, 
amounts necessary to provide Office of the Secretary of Defense 
Exceptional Public Service Awards under subsection (b).