A New Federal Press Shield Bill Falters Just Before the Finish Line in Congress

Lost in the incredibly expensive fight over how many billions of dollars the federal government can waste is any number of more modest bills—some of which wouldn’t add to our nation’s debt and would help protect Americans from that very expensive government.

Consider the PRESS Act—officially the Protect Reporters From Exploitative State Spying Act. The PRESS Act is intended to stop the federal government from attempting to force journalists to divulge the identities of anonymous sources, like government whistleblowers. There are exceptions if the government can show that disclosing the identity of the source is necessary to identify a terrorist or to prevent violent crime or crime against a child.

More importantly, the bill also prevents federal agencies from bypassing the above protections by turning to third-party service providers (like messaging apps or social media platforms) to get the journalist’s communications. Again, there’s an exemption for threats of imminent violence, and there’s a process involved that requires a subpoena and a court hearing. Essentially, it would serve as a federal “shield law.” Nearly every state has some sort of law that stops journalists from being forced to reveal sources, but there is currently no federal version.

The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D–Md.) and sailed through entirely by a voice vote. But in the Senate last week, where it was sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) and Mike Lee (R–Utah), an attempt to get it passed by unanimous consent during the lame duck session was derailed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R–Ark.). He objected on national security grounds, going so far as to use the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, which revealed secrets of America’s handling of the Vietnam War, as an example of why it’s actually bad to protect journalism and journalists from governmen