The Daniel Ellsberg Press Freedom and Whistleblower Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib on March 12, remains in committee without a scheduled hearing. [1] Nearly a month has passed. The bill has not moved.

The legislation would reform the Espionage Act to prevent its use against journalists and whistleblowers — a cause that has taken on urgent relevance during the Iran war. The bill limits Espionage Act prosecutions to cases involving genuine espionage, creates a public interest defense for whistleblowers, and protects journalists from prosecution for receiving classified information. [2]

Fourteen civil liberties organizations, including Amnesty International and the Center for Constitutional Rights, endorsed the bill before its introduction. [3] The Freedom of the Press Foundation called it "the most comprehensive Espionage Act reform ever introduced." [2]

But comprehensive reform requires votes, and votes require hearings. The House Judiciary Committee, where the bill was referred, has shown no indication of scheduling one. The committee's current attention is consumed by immigration enforcement debates and the DHS funding standoff.

The bill's fate may also depend on the outcome of pending federal cases — what press freedom advocates call the "Lemon motion" — involving reporters subpoenaed for source information during wartime coverage. Those cases could create judicial pressure that legislative inaction has failed to produce.

Named for Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who died in 2023, the bill embodies a principle the current moment is testing: that democracy requires both whistleblowers and the journalists who publish their disclosures.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin