REP. HILL INTRODUCES BILL TO PROTECT PUBLIC SERVANTS AND THEIR FAMILIES FROM THREATS

Statement

Rep. French Hill (AR-02) yesterday introduced H.R 7799, the Public Servant Protection Act, companion legislation to Senator Tom Cotton's (R-AR) bill introduced in the Senate last week.

"Republican or Democrat, public officials and their families should not be subject to threats of violence or angry protests outside their private place of residence because of policy disagreements and the work they do in a professional capacity," said Rep. Hill. "I thank Senator Cotton for introducing this measure in the Senate, and I am proud to introduce the companion bill in the House."

"Judges and other government officials should not be subjected to angry protests and violent threats at home simply because they serve the public at work. Our bill will protect public servants and their families by allowing them to remove their home addresses from any public website," said Senator Cotton.

Further Background:

The Public Servant Protection Act would provide government officials the right to have their home address and phone number and the home address and phone number of their immediate family members taken down from any publicly displayed website. The burden is on the government official to make the request that a website owner remove the information. This legislation is based on an existing California law, which provides the same protection for federal and local officials.

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