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 
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•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; 
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•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; 
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•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-
resentatives 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. 
Æ 
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