IV 
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 resolu-
tion; 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 Presi-
dent, 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 spe-
cial 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; 
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•HRES 325 IH 
Whereas members of the press serve the public interest by re-
porting on the movements and activities of the President 
each day; 
Whereas the protective press pool began during the adminis-
tration of President Dwight Eisenhower under the direc-
tion 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 Amer-
ican public; 
Whereas the protective press pool provided critical informa-
tion to the American public during and after the assas-
sination 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 unfold-
ing 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; 
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•HRES 325 IH 
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 protec-
tive 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 Rus-
sia’s state-owned news agency Tass to attend and photo-
graph the meeting; 
Whereas, on May 12, 2017, in responding to news reports 
about the controversy surrounding his firing of FBI Di-
rector 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 ne-
cessity of a free and independent press to inform the 
public: Now, therefore be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives 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 Presi-
dent assumes office; 
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•HRES 325 IH 
(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, sched-
ules of official actions; 
(3) provide the protective press pool with access 
to sufficient information to ensure that the Amer-
ican 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. 
Æ 
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