Ahead of the omnibus spending bill set to be released late Monday night, one of the staunchest defenders of press freedom and whistleblower rights in the Senate — Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa — told The Intercept he doesn’t think that the PRESS Act will be included in the year-end legislation. “I don’t think so,” Grassley said. The legislation, also known as the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act, seeks to protect journalists from government efforts to compel them to disclose the identities of their sources.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a rabid opponent of the legislation and the protections it seeks to advance, argued on the Senate floor that the Pentagon Papers represented an example of criminal behavior by the media intended to influence public opinion against the war in Vietnam, and stood in as a reason to block the PRESS Act.
Asked if he was blocking the bill at Cotton’s behest, Grassley said he wasn’t sure. “Gosh, I’ve been listening to Sen. Cotton on two or three different things so I don’t know for sure,” he said in a brief hallway interview. Sources on and off the Hill involved in the push for the legislation said that Grassley was privately supportive of the bill, but declined to put it forward at the behest of Cotton. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., could override Grassley, but doing so in the direction of advancing press freedom and protection for whistleblowers is unlikely.
Senate leadership attempted to pass the PRESS Act last...
Pakistan on April 22, Thursday urged the United Nations to call upon India to restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that New Delhi’s “illegal” decision to hold the ...