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Senate Republicanson Tuesdayquickly backed away from a proposal to restrict media access in the Capitol after an angry backlash from reporters and an emergency meeting between the Senate Rules Committee and the media gallery directors.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) sent out a statement around lunchtime clarifying that there would not be a rules change, only a discussion about how to ensure safety as the Capitol hallways have become more hectic because of growing crowds of journalists.

Shelby announced in a statement that the committee had made no changes to the existing rules governing press coverage on the Senate side of the Capitol complex.

A Senate official familiar with administrative discussions said, Everything you did before, you can still do.

Democrats seized on the news, linking the new restriction to the GOPs work on healthcare legislation that is being drafted behind closed doors.

Earlier in the day, Senate Sergeant at Arms staff told the directors of the media galleries who represent journalists interests that reporters would not be allowed to film interviews with senators in the Capitol or the Senate office building without first receiving special permission.

Television reporters had been told they could not conduct on-camera interviews in hallways, outside personal offices or outside committee rooms without permission fromthe Senate Rules Committee, the Senate Sergeant at Arms or the Senate Radio and TV Gallery, depending on location, according to another Senate official involved in the matter.

Kevin Cirilli, chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg TV, tweeted that he was informed that he could not stand outside the Senate Budget Committee to interview lawmakers.

The gallery directors were also told that all reporters seeking to speak to senators in the basement of the Capitol, where it is easiest to catch lawmakers on the way to votes and lunches, would have to stand in a special press pen.

The directive appeared to be in effect only brieflyon Tuesday.

Shelby told The Hill that his committee staff had acted without his knowledge after receiving complaints from other senators who sometimes feel hounded by reporters.

He instructed them to stand down and drop efforts to limit reporters activities.

I know some of the staff talked to the people in the gallery and I think the Rules Committee talked to the Sergeant at Arms, not me, Shelby said. When I found out about it, I said stand down."

Were not going to change any rules, not unless we hold committee hearings, he added.

Shelby said he hopes no additional restrictions will be placed on reporters, noting, We all benefit from you, as long as you act civil.

One Senate official said that the Senate Rules Committee insisted laterTuesdaythat it had never ordered the Sergeant at Arms to enforce tougher restrictions on the press and blamed the uproar on a miscommunication.

Shelby told reporterson Tuesdayafternoon that Rules Committee staff had been meeting with the press gallery and Sergeant at Arms.

"I think they had a discussion, I wasn't there, of existing rules because a lot of people complained, not to me, said the press the gets in their way and aggressiveness," Shelby said.

"I said leave it alone, leave it alone, we don't care you know? I don't," Shelby added. "So I told them to stand down."

Sen.Amy Klobuchar(Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, told reporters that Shelby explained the alarm was set off by a staff inquiry and downplayed it as an arbitrary enforcement of a rule that is against common practice.

"He said he would never move forward on some major change without consulting with me. He said it was an inquiry and that we would talk about it. So he seemed to imply that they weren't going to change the policy," Klobuchar told reporters.

She also released a statement that said, "As ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee I call on the majority to allow reporting in the Capitol to proceed as usual.

Members of the media had responded with outrage to the restrictions.

Senate Rules Committee and @SenateSAA trying to SHUT DOWN press access in halls. No more staking out hearings without permission. Not OK, Manu Raju, CNNs senior congressional reporter, tweeted, using the Twitter handle for the Senate Sergeant at Arms.

Several senators from both parties criticized the move.

Sen.Chris Murphy(D-Conn.) tweeted: Maybe not the right moment to lower the secrecy veil on Congress. To whoever is trying to protect Senators wecan fend for ourselves.

"I want you to have access to us, inform your readers, inform your viewers what we're trying to do," Sen.Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.), one of the most media-friendly senators, told reporters in the Senate subway. But "of all the problems in America, y'all are pretty down on the chain."

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) retweeted an NBC News reporter's tweet, adding: "This is a bad idea."

Tensions between the media and Republicans have ratcheted up at the Capitol since President Trump pulled off a major political upset by defeating Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonHow the Obama phenomenon and Trump earthquake happened Gingrich: Sessions 'didn't back down' during Senate testimony Gillespie edges out Trump-aligned candidate in Virginia gov primary MORE in November.

Public interest in Congress and media coverage of lawmakers has skyrocketed since Trumps inauguration and crowds of reporters in the Capitol hallways have hit record sizes.

Last month, the Senate Sergeant at Arms sent a note to media outlets warning about overcrowding as reporters try to pin down lawmakers for interviews in hallways and around the Senate subway system.

Since the beginning of the year, media outlets such as CNN, NBC and Fox News have regularly staked out senators outside of their offices and hearing rooms to ask questions about healthcare reform and the investigations into collusion between the Trump administration and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Updated: 3:39 p.m.

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Senate Republicans back off proposed restrictions on media - The Hill

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., during a TV interview Wednesday. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The news of James Comeys ouster as director of the FBI was met with shock, confusion and condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum although mostly from Democrats Tuesday evening.

By the next morning, however, Fox News had managed to find plenty of people willing to publicly defend the presidents decision to fire Comey.

I think it couldnt happen soon enough, Sen. Rand Paul,R-Ky., said on Fox & Friends Wednesday. Id lost confidence in Comey a long time ago.

Paul dismissed suggestions that the FBI directors dismissal was related to his role in the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and members of Trumps presidential campaign.

Theres a lot of hypocrisy going on, Paul said, pointing to Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who called for a special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation, suggesting that Comeys firing might be part of a cover up.

I think its a lot of crocodile tears, Paul said of the outrage from Schumer and others whod previously condemned Comey for his handling of information related to the Clinton email investigation days before the presidential election.

Democrats, he argued, should be thanking Trump for getting rid of Comey because he politicized something that may well have had something to do with Hillary Clintons loss.

Slideshow: Hundreds gather at the White House to protest Trumps firing of FBI Dir. Comey >>>

Former House Speaker and past presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was similarly dismissive of those whove raised questions about the timing of Comeys termination.

If Trump comes out at lunchtime today and says, the American flag is red, white and blue, Chuck Schumer will yell out its actually fuscia, he said.

While several top Republicans also expressed concerns about the timing and rationale behind Comeys firing, Gingrich insisted that Democrats are simply operating on the knee jerk mentality that if President Trump is for it, its gotta be wrong.

Its really pathetic, he said.

Echoing the White Houses own messaging, Gingrich defended Trumps decision by pointing to the bipartisan reputation of newly confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who previously served as U.S. attorney in Maryland under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. It was Rosenstein who authored the memo that Trump says prompted him to fire Comey.

This was not President Trump, Gingrich insisted. This is a brand new deputy attorney general, independent person, picked by President Obama to be U.S. attorney, approved by the Senate 94-6.

Meanwhile, on the Senate floor, Kentucky Republican and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted Democrats calls for a special prosecutor to takeover the Russia investigation previously led by Comey.

Today well no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, he said, which can only serve to impede the current work being done.

According to Politico, the outrage over Comeys ouster came as a shock to Trump, who reportedly complained about the lack of support for his decision on TV news broadcasts Tuesday night. This frustration was apparent as the president took to Twitter to defend his actions and condemn his critics in a torrent of tweets posted late Tuesday and into the next morning.

Trump continued to stand by his controversial call during a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the White House Wednesday.

He wasnt doing a good job, Trump told reporters when asked why Comey was fired. Very simply. He was not doing a good job.

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After initial shock, Republicans line up behind president ...

Top House Republicans warned their GOP colleagues Tuesday to watch out and get ready, because a political storm could be coming in 2018.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning at the Republican National Committee to expect a difficult political landscape ahead of the midterm congressional elections next year. They cited increased grass-roots engagement on the left and robust fundraising for Democratic candidates in recent special elections in urging lawmakers to accelerate their own political efforts in response.

The message from leadership, and I think its a very appropriate message, is: We are not going to take anything for granted, said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a key GOP fundraiser. Even in the districts that lean or tilt heavily Republican, you have to be ready you cant just sit around and expect that this is just going to roll your way without some major effort. This will be a year Republicans will need to recognize that getting this majority was hard, and keeping it is hard, and we need to roll up our sleeves and do everything necessary so the day after Election Day, were not sitting around playing the what-if game.

According to the most recent publicly reported figures available, Republicans are getting outspent by Democrats in the key congressional battleground of 2017 Georgias 6th Congressional District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff has raised a staggering $23.6 million in his bid to claim the House seat once held by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Republican candidate Karen Handel has lagged with $4.5 million raised, although that has been boosted by a $6.3 million commitment from the NRCC and $7 million in planned spending from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC.

Small donors have also pumped millions into Democratic campaigns waging recent special elections in Kansas and Montana, forcing the NRCC and Republican-aligned outside groups to spend millions to blunt the impact of the grass-roots surge on the left. In both cases, Republican candidates won but by slimmer margins than the GOP has come to expect in those particular districts.

Inside the meeting, Stivers gave House Republicans an update on the Georgia race and another pending special election in South Carolina, telling them that Republicans were in position to win both races citing polling showing a dead heat in Georgia and a solid GOP advantage in South Carolina.

But he also warned that the NRCC has already spent roughly $10 million on special elections in 2017 far outstripping the committees spending in other recent nonelection years. From 2009 through 2016, the committee spent about $9.7 million combined on special elections.

In an interview Tuesday, Stivers said he simply reiterated sage advice for any election cycle You always need to be ready for every race and said he felt good about how House Republicans were positioned, with the party committee outraising its Democratic counterpart.

If you are ready, everything will be good, and we always need to be ready, he said. I dont feel any doom or gloom whatsoever. Im excited about this cycle.

Ryan, a person inside the meeting said, emphasized the need for members even those in safe seats to prepare for whats ahead by increasing their own fundraising pace and potentially by assisting colleagues in tougher races by transferring money to the NRCC. Several members announced contributions to the party committee on the spot.

Multiple members inside the Tuesday morning meeting said the challenge was also presented in historical terms: Parties in power tend to lose ground in the midterm congressional elections.

The average midterm turnover is 32 seats since FDR, said Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.). So youve got to be paying attention to those things get out there, work hard, work on your messaging.

The potential challenges for GOP House candidates, both now and in 2018, are myriad starting with an unpopular president mired in investigations that are unlikely to be resolved soon, which stands to turn off independent voters, to a congressional majority that has been unable so far to swiftly execute its agenda, which could dampen enthusiasm on the right. Those obstacles could weigh even heavier if Ossoff beats Handel on June 20, demonstrating concrete momentum for Democrats.

Stivers said he was not concerned about the Georgia race, citing tight polls and encouraging early-voting turnout for Republicans, and he made a case that an Ossoff win still wouldnt spell disaster for the GOP.

I give him fundraising props, but thats a single race, Stivers said. This isnt something they can duplicate, even in Georgia-six. In a general in 2018, they cant raise $20 million, because there will be 435 seats to talk about, not one.

Womack said he, too, was wary of reading too much into the special election results, and he said the historical record on midterm elections could be of limited utility.

I dont know how you can apply historical averages because of the way redistricting has happened over the last four, five decades, he said. Weve created a lot of pretty safe seats out there.

But he said that the political head winds for Republicans were unmistakable.

Its on everybodys mind: I mean, we know what were facing, and we know that the other side of the aisle is motivated, their ground game is going to be good, Womack said. The 18 cycle is going to be our first real test out of the box after a change in administration, so we know we have to do our jobs. We have to be fundamentally sound. We need to have our game face on every day, and we need to be developing the right resources and doing the job that is expected of somebody thats up for reelection.

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House GOP leaders warn Republicans about 2018: Watch out - Washington Post

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan walked past a bank of television cameras on his way to a meeting.

By Astead W. Herndon and Victoria McGrane Globe Staff June 13, 2017

WASHINGTON Debates over press freedom and secret deliberations of healthcare legislation roiled the US Senate Tuesday, indicating signs of strain about public scrutiny within a bastion of American democracy.

Republicans who control the Senate Rules Committee abruptly banned TV reporters from conducting videotaped interviews and filming in Capitol corridors without advanced permission then, after an outcry, appeared to quickly back down.

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The extraordinary media restrictions, implemented by the Republican-controlled Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Sergeant at Arms Office, came against the backdrop of unprecedented secrecy surrounding the Republican health care bill, which has been negotiated without any public hearings or public testimony.

At a press conference Tuesday, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell defended the closed door process.

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Nobodys hiding the ball here, McConnell said. Youre free to ask anybody anything.

If anything, physically attacking a reporter feels like a logical next step for the GOP.

The investigations and intense controversies of President Trumps administration have at times created big press scrums, making it difficult for Senators to walk through the halls. But a chorus of lawmakers, mostly Democrats but some Republicans as well, quickly denounced the idea of imposing blanket restrictions on press access in Congress the biggest symbol of open, democratic government in the world.

The chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, issued a clarification after the ban was announced saying that no new restrictions had been imposed on TV cameras, and that Senate press officials had been asked to enforce existing rules. Later, he told television reporters the entire ordeal was a misunderstanding.

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It wasnt anything I did, Shelby told reporters in the late afternoon.

The firestorm about press access came at an inopportune time for the GOP, since the caucus is already under fire for refusing to submit their proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act to public scrutiny. The House version of the bill would cause 23 million Americans to lose insurance, according to the official estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.

The GOP leadership is currently crafting a bill without any public hearings or input, and without releasing any drafts of the proposal. Still, they plan to push for a floor vote before July 4.

Hannah Katch, a Medicaid expert at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the hush-hush nature of the GOP health care bill is causing anxiety in health care markets.

I cant think of a reason to be so secretive about this process, unless they believe that the smallest bit of sunlight would stop the bill in its tracks, Katch said. If a member of Congress is proud of their bill and they want their constituents input and they believe it will improve the lives of their constituents, I see no reason to be so secretive.

Even some members of the Republican party said they would prefer more sunlight.

Senator Bob Corker, the Republican from Tennessee, said Tuesday that once legislation is crafted - that before the Senate votes a CBO score will be public and everyone will know whats in it.

Ive said from Day One and Ill say it again, the process is better if you do it in public and that way people get buy in along the way and understand whats going on, Corker said. Obviously thats not the route that is being taken.

South Dakota Senator John Thune, a member of the GOP leadership team, was among a group of Republican senators who had a lunchtime meeting with Trump about the bill. After the meeting, Thune defended the Republican health care process as an open one or, at least, open to Republicans.

Our members have all been involved, Thune said. We know what the issues are. Weve been litigating this for the last eight years. ... There have been multitudes of hearings and discussions about these issues.

The controversy over the closed-door process statements speak to the high stakes of the current political climate and the furious debate over the covert health care negotiations. Back in 2009, Senate committees spent more than 20 days publicly debating the President Obamas Affordable Care Act, considering more than 125 amendments and nearly 80 roll call votes. The full Senate spent 25 straight days debating the health care bill before passing it on Christmas Eve.

In the drive to repeal that law, an action that could leave as many as 23 million Americans without health insurance, Republicans have not released the text of their health care bill to the public, less than two weeks before leaders plan to hold a final vote. Some reports say the GOP leadership is considering not releasing the bills to the public at all, at least before it is scored by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

This has stunned health care professionals like Katch, transparency watchdogs, and Democratic lawmakers.

Ive never seen anything like this. Ive never seen anything close to this, said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren Tuesday, in a petition she sent out to her personal e-mail list, which was also blasted out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

No hearings, no debate, no bill to look at, Warren said. This scheme to repeal health care takes every norm of the Senate every concept of how we work together and just burns them to the ground.

Andy Slavitt, the former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama, said he fears that health care industry experts are being excluded from the process, which could lead to worse policy.

Its not just a matter of transparency, its a matter of including good thinking in the bill, Slavitt said.

Theres a serious process you have to go through for legislation thats going to effect a sixth of the economy and tens of millions of people, Slavitt said. You dont go through a process, which, all told, may total 20 hours. With no hearings. No markups. Only 20 hours of debate.

Democrats were not buying it. Throughout the day Tuesday, they attempted to tie Shelbys proposed press restrictions with the health care debate. For some, it signaled how far Republicans are willing to go to keep their health care plan in the dark.

I call on the majority to allow reporting in the Capitol to proceed as usual, said Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee.

This is no time for limiting press access in U.S. Senate. Russia hearings, Sessions testifying & (secret?) health care bill being drafted! Klobuchar tweeted.

Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut, was more blunt.

The new press restrictions were about the Republicans trying to keep health care negotiations hidden, protect their Senators from tough questions Outrageous. Murphy said on Twitter.

According to reporters who were at the Capitol Tuesday, including a Globe reporter, the new edict was handed down around 11 a.m., when the director of the Senate Radio TV Gallery Director Mike Mastrian told TV crews that they needed to clear the hallway because they were engaging in an unauthorized stakeout.

Mastrian said current leadership of the Senate Rules Committee, meaning Shelby, had decided to invoke existing rules that require advance permission from both an individual senator and the Senate Rules panel before conducting an interview in the hallway.

As several members of the media pointed out to the director, the decision broke with decades of precedent. Capitol Hill journalists often wait outside hearing rooms to question individual lawmakers, which provides the public swift and accurate information about the goings on in Congress.

Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California tweeted Senators dont need to hide, as did moderate Democrat Joe Manchin, of West Virginia. Republican Senator Ben Sasse said this is a bad idea.

Originally posted here:
Senate Republicans abruptly restrict news cameras in Capitol then quickly back down - The Boston Globe

This article has been updated.

News on Tuesday that on-camera interviews might be significantly curtailed within the Capitol is an on-the-nose manifestation of something that had otherwise not attracted a lot of attention: The Republican effort to replace Obamacare was being put together almost entirely outside of the publics ability to see what was happening.

When White House press secretary Sean Spicer first addressed the Republican health-care bill that would eventually pass the House last month, he was effusive that his partys caucus on Capitol Hill would do things differently.

One of the things thats important to understand about this process, thats very different from when the Democrats did it, Spicer said, referring to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Everybody can read it, and its going to go through what they call regular order, he said. Were not jamming this down anybodys throat. Its going to go through a committee process. All parties involved, all representatives in the House will be able to have input into it. I think thats the way to conduct this process, is to do it to allow people to watch the process happen in the committees, allow members of Congress to have their input in it, to make amendments, to see that we get the best bill that achieves the goal for the American people.

He blamed the Democratic secrecy he was maligning for the final shape of the bill. When it was done the last time, it was jammed down peoples throats. And look what happened, he said,

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan made similar commitments. But thats not at all how the Republican bill has unfolded.

Now that the Republican health-care bill has passed the House, there's a whole other set of obstacles it faces in the Senate. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

After rushing the original version through committee in the House and getting an unfavorable assessment of its effects from the Congressional Budget Office, Republican leaders realized they didnt have the votes for their bill, the American Health Care Act, to pass. (This was compounded by broad public outcry against the bill.) It was tabled for a while, until two amendments were crafted to make the bill palatable to enough Republicans to hit a majority in the House. Those amendments were added at the last minute, and a vote to pass the AHCA was held before the CBO could assess its effects.

It was generally assumed that the bill didnt have much of a chance in the Senate. But that was before a small group of senators began working in private to develop a bill that might pass that body. And when we say in private, thats underselling the point.

Only a small group of senators know whats in the bill. An aide to one of the Republican senators working on it told Axios that no draft would be released because we arent stupid meaning, apparently, that they knew better than to open up the bill to public criticism before the vote. The plan, apparently, is to send the bill to the CBO for a score before it is then released to the public.

Senators were reportedly going to be informed about options for the contents of the bill during a luncheon on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, after which the bill would be finalized and sent for scoring, with the goal of a vote before July 4.

This is the point when senators learned more details about the proposed bill at which the prohibition on televised interviews was issued.

The prohibition apparently came from the Senate Rules Committee, run by the Republican caucus. But not every Republican on that committee was aware that any rules for interviews had been changed, nor was the ranking Democrat.

(Update: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) released a statement denying that any rules had been changed.)

It could be a coincidence that this issue emerged now. The Post reported last week about crowding in the Capitol as reporters jostled for interviews. This change does have the effect, though, that senators will be able to avoid answering questions on camera about a bill that they recognize is not popular. (A poll released last week found that only 17 percent of the country approved of the House bill.)

How far might a Republican go to avoid answering questions about the health-care bill? One extreme example: Greg Gianforte of Montana assaulted a reporter rather than answer questions about the bill the day before being elected to the House from that state. By contrast, shutting off television cameras is downright passive.

A prohibition on cameras is a tangible demonstration of the lack of transparency thats carrying the day on Capitol Hill. At some point, the Republican bill will become public, and American voters can judge it for themselves. Until that point, though we (and many of our elected leaders) are in the dark.

We are coming up with something that I believe will be very good, President Trump said of the bill on Monday. Its not clear from that remark if hes seen the actual legislation either.

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The remarkable steps Republicans are taking to obscure what's in their health-care bill - Washington Post