Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2005

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (Senate - April 14, 2005)

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I appreciate very much the Senator from West Virginia offering the amendment and bringing this issue to the attention of the Senate and making the suggestion that is included in this amendment, which would ``prohibit the use of funds by any Federal agency to produce a prepackaged news story without including in such a story notification for the audience that the story was prepared or funded by a Federal agency.''

That is what the amendment says the purpose is, and that looks totally OK to me--harmless, no reason we should not support it. Then if you read down in the body of the amendment itself as to what it actually would provide in law, it says:

None of the funds provided in this act or any other act may be used by a Federal agency to produce any prepackaged news story, unless the story includes a clear notification to the audience that the story was prepared or funded by that Federal agency.

This creates a new obligation--not one that is enforced now by the FCC, not one that is embraced by Members of Congress or Senators when they send news releases out to news organizations about their activities or their views on a subject, it includes an obligation on anyone sending such a news story or statement or video release to communicate to the audience--the person looking at the television show or listening to the radio or reading the newspaper--that it is prepared by a Federal agency, or it uses funds to prepare it that are given to a Federal agency. It creates a new requirement, one that is almost impossible to meet.

Think about it. When we send a news release to a newspaper back home, we don't send it to all of the readers or subscribers of that newspaper. We send it to the newspaper, the address, the name of the newspaper in the town where it does business. So that is the defect in the amendment. That is why Senator Bond, speaking as chairman of the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the funding and the laws under the jurisdiction of the subcommittee that would be involved and affected by

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this, spoke against the amendment. That is why the Senate should not adopt the amendment.

We all agree you need to include a disclaimer. We have to do that and we do that. Federal agencies do that. We cannot make the news editor or the producer of the news show include the disclaimer in the broadcast though. Nor should we be held responsible personally or criticized if that news agency didn't disclaim or print or announce where they got the news story. That is an entirely different obligation and one that the FCC will enforce now and that we all support.

So what I am suggesting is that these are great speeches. This is a good political issue--to accuse the administration of trying to fool the American people by creating the impression that some of their news stories that are produced for the news media are produced by them and not the radio station or the television station or the newspaper that published it or broadcasted it. That is nothing new. But it is not up to the agency or the person who writes the story to communicate it to the audience.

That is the problem. We cannot support it. So it would be my intention to move to table the amendment because of that--not because it is not motivated by the right reasons or doesn't carry with it the sentiment that is appropriate. Of course, it does. But the wording of the amendment itself--not just the purpose of the amendment--is defective in that it imposes an obligation that should not be imposed on Federal agencies, the Government, or individual Members of Congress.

I am hopeful that--and I am sure the Senator from West Virginia will, if he can--the Senator will modify his amendment so it can be accepted. But if that cannot be done, I am prepared to move to table the amendment. I will not do that and cut off the right of any other person to talk about the subject.

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Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, for the information of Senators, I have been asked and others have been asking the leadership about the intention of the Senate to proceed to votes on other amendments tonight. That is certainly up to the Senate. We are here open for business. We have an emergency supplemental appropriations bill pending before the Senate, and we need to move with dispatch to complete action on this bill to get the money to the Departments of Defense and State for accounts that have been depleted and that we need in the war on terror, that we need for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I hope we can proceed to further consideration of amendments that are pending. There are amendments pending. I hope Senators can cooperate with the managers and the leadership in moving this bill ahead.

I thank all Senators. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Senator. I think the Senator certainly hits upon a subject that we are very sensitive about at this time. We are following very closely the situation of the servicemen who are participating in the war against terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. We are proud of
them. We are sorry that any of them have to be in the hospital or have to have access to services that are provided under the terms of this amendment. I would be happy to take the suggestion that is embodied in this amendment to the conference committee and try to work out an acceptable provision to be included in the final conference report and bring it back to the Senate.

So I recommend the Senate accept the amendment.

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