The Daniel Ellsberg Press Freedom Act was introduced in committee three months ago. It has not moved. No hearing has been scheduled. No markup session is on the calendar. The bill sits where legislation goes to be forgotten [1].

Named after the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who died in 2023, the act would codify protections for journalists who receive and publish classified information, effectively creating a federal shield law with teeth. It would prohibit the prosecution of reporters under the Espionage Act for the act of publishing — a protection that currently exists only as prosecutorial discretion, not statute.

The bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of sponsors who cited the war with Iran as proof that press protections cannot depend on executive goodwill. When the Pentagon closed its press corridor and the administration restricted embedded reporting, the sponsors argued that statutory protection was overdue.

Three months later, the urgency has not translated into action. The Senate Judiciary Committee, where the bill was referred, has been consumed by judicial nominations and emergency appropriations related to the conflict. Committee staff confirmed that no hearing is currently scheduled, though they described the bill as "under review."

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, which advocated for the legislation, noted that Ellsberg himself spent his final years arguing for exactly this kind of statutory shield. He believed that prosecutorial restraint was not the same as legal protection — and that the distinction would matter most during wartime.

He was right. The bill sits in committee. The war continues.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin