Senate hallway-interview restrictions blamed on 'miscommunication'

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, faces a Capitol Hill hallway full of reporters earlier this month.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, faces a Capitol Hill hallway full of reporters earlier this month.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate Republican on Tuesday blamed a move to restrict media access in the U.S. Capitol on a "miscommunication" and said he doesn't expect anything to change in practice.

U.S. Senate staff had instructed reporters Tuesday not to film interviews with senators in the hallways of the Capitol in Washington without permission from a committee led by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., journalists said, reversing years of precedent in which those interviews were freely and regularly conducted.

The move prompted swift backlash from First Amendment advocates and senators on both sides of the aisle. It came amid mounting tensions over the public's access to elected officials -- including Senate Republican leaders meeting in private to draft an overhaul of American health care policy.

Shelby said in an earlier written statement that the rules panel he leads hadn't changed existing rules and was merely trying to enforce them to provide safety for lawmakers, journalists, aides and members of the public.

Later, he emerged to speak to reporters -- in a Capitol hallway -- about the episode.

"What the heck?" Shelby said was his reaction after staff told him about the restrictions. "Reporters are aggressive, but so are we."

Conditions for any interview must now include "previously-granted permission from senator and Rules Committee of Senate," NBC News reported on Twitter earlier Tuesday. A Bloomberg TV journalist was told he couldn't stand outside the Senate Budget Committee hearing room to interview lawmakers.

The move followed a message from Senate press gallery officials to news organizations last month that said: "Collectively, the press following Senators have become large and aggressive. We are concerned someone may get hurt."

Media groups responded quickly to Tuesday's move, with the Radio and Television Correspondents Association condemning the action, and the Standing Committee of Correspondents saying it would "continue to strongly oppose any unreasonable restrictions on press freedom and access" in the Senate.

Criticism from colleagues on both sides of the aisle preceded Shelby's explanation.

"What we've been doing works fine," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said in an interview.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that "of course" he opposes banning hallway interviews, according to NBC.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member of the rules panel, in a statement urged Republicans "to allow reporting in the Capitol to proceed as usual."

"Maybe not the right moment to lower the secrecy veil on Congress. To whoever is trying to protect Senators -- we can fend for ourselves," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on Twitter.

Information for this article was contributed by Sahil Kapur, Kevin Cirilli and Billy House of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/14/2017

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