I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3256
To provide for the issuance of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Excep-
tional 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. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 7, 2003
Mr. ROHRABACHER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To provide for the issuance of the Office of the Secretary 
of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award to journal-
ists 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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. RECOGNITION OF JOURNALISTS EMBEDDED 
WITH UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES OR 
COALITION PARTNERS IN IRAQ DURING OP-
ERATION 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 inter-
ference and reflected the belief of the American peo-
ple that an informed public is essential to the sur-
vival 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 exces-
sive Government actions by facilitating feedback to 
the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of 
Government. 
(3) Journalists first began serving as war cor-
respondents during the Crimean War in 1854, and, 
by the next decade, more than 500 journalists cov-
ered the activities of the contending armies during 
the American Civil War, capturing the interest of 
Americans in the conflict and establishing the tradi-
tion of newspaper readership in America. 
(4) During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the De-
partment 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 lib-
eration 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 accom-
panying troops in possible combat and embedded 
themselves with units of the United States Armed 
Forces or coalition partners. 
(6) Journalists have often worked under censor-
ship in the past, but the embedded journalists were 
free to cover the conflict without interference from 
the military, and provided generally accurate ac-
counts 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 im-
peding 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 im-
prisonment, 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 cov-
ering 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 JOUR-
NALISTS.—The Secretary of Defense shall award the Of-
fice of the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service 
Award to journalists who were authorized by the Depart-
ment 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 des-
ignated by the Secretary. 
(d) AVAILABILITY OF APPROPRIATIONS.—The Sec-
retary may expend, from any appropriation for contingent 
expenses of the Department of Defense, amounts nec-
essary to provide Office of the Secretary of Defense Ex-
ceptional Public Service Awards under subsection (b).
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