Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SR152 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	III
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. RES. 152
5	5	Designating April 2025 as ‘‘Preserving and Protecting Local News Month’’
6	6	and recognizing the importance and significance of local news.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	APRIL1 (legislative day, MARCH31), 2025
9	9	Mr. S
10	10	CHATZ(for himself, Mr. KING, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr.
11	11	F
12	12	ETTERMAN, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. LUJA´N, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. WELCH, Mr.
13	13	W
14	14	ARNER, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. KELLY, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. SMITH, and Ms.
15	15	C
16	16	ANTWELL) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
17	17	Committee on the Judiciary
18	18	RESOLUTION
19	19	Designating April 2025 as ‘‘Preserving and Protecting Local
20	20	News Month’’ and recognizing the importance and sig-
21	21	nificance of local news.
22	22	Whereas the United States was founded on the principle of
23	23	freedom of the press enshrined in the First Amendment
24	24	to the Constitution of the United States, which declares
25	25	that ‘‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the free-
26	26	dom of speech, or of the press . . .’’;
27	27	Whereas an informed citizenry depends on accurate and unbi-
28	28	ased news reporting to inform the judgment of the peo-
29	29	ple;
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32	32	•SRES 152 IS
33	33	Whereas a robust, diverse, and sustainable local news pres-
34	34	ence leads to civic engagement and the buttressing of
35	35	democratic norms and practices;
36	36	Whereas local news provides vital information on national,
37	37	State, and local elections to help United States citizens
38	38	execute their civic responsibility;
39	39	Whereas the absence of local news outlets and investigative
40	40	reporting allows local government corruption and cor-
41	41	porate malfeasance to go unchecked;
42	42	Whereas local journalists help combat misinformation and
43	43	disinformation by using their community knowledge and
44	44	connections to debunk fraudulent or misleading content;
45	45	Whereas local cable franchises routinely provide for public
46	46	educational and government access channels on their sys-
47	47	tems that—
48	48	(1) offer vital local civic programming that informs
49	49	communities;
50	50	(2) provide news and information not often available
51	51	on other local broadcast channels or cable;
52	52	(3) supplement local journalism; and
53	53	(4) at times, are the only source for local news;
54	54	Whereas more than
55	55	3
56	56	⁄4of United States citizens trust local
57	57	news sources;
58	58	Whereas, according to researchers at the Northwestern Uni-
59	59	versity Medill School of Journalism, the United States
60	60	has lost more than 3,200 local print outlets since 2005;
61	61	Whereas, according to recent research—
62	62	(1) an average of 2.5 local print outlets are being
63	63	shuttered every week in the United States;
64	64	(2) more than 200 of the 3,143 counties and county
65	65	equivalents in the United States have no local newspaper
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68	68	•SRES 152 IS
69	69	at all, creating a news shortage for over 3,500,000 resi-
70	70	dents of those areas;
71	71	(3) of the remaining counties in the United States,
72	72	more than
73	73	1
74	74	⁄2have only 1 newspaper to cover populations
75	75	ranging from fewer than 1,000 to more than 1,000,000
76	76	residents and
77	77	2
78	78	⁄3have no daily newspaper, with fewer
79	79	than 100 of these counties having a digital substitute;
80	80	(4) more than
81	81	1
82	82	⁄2of all newspapers in the United
83	83	States have changed owners during the past decade;
84	84	(5) as of 2024, just 10 companies, including compa-
85	85	nies with partial or full ownership by private equity firms
86	86	and hedge funds, control
87	87	1
88	88	⁄4of all newspapers and more
89	89	than
90	90	1
91	91	⁄2of all dailies in the United States;
92	92	(6) of the surviving 5,595 newspapers in the United
93	93	States, thousands now qualify as ‘‘ghost newspapers’’, or
94	94	newspapers with reporting and photography staffs that
95	95	are so significantly reduced that they can no longer pro-
96	96	vide much of the breaking news or public service jour-
97	97	nalism that once informed readers about vital issues in
98	98	their communities;
99	99	(7) rural counties are among the counties most
100	100	deeply impacted by the loss of local reporting, as more
101	101	than 500 of the net loss of nearly 3,200 newspapers that
102	102	have closed since 2005 are in rural counties; and
103	103	(8) researchers at the Northwestern University
104	104	Medill School of Journalism estimate that 279 counties
105	105	across 32 States are at an elevated risk of becoming news
106	106	deserts, which would inordinately impact high-poverty
107	107	areas in the South, Mountain West, and Midwest, and
108	108	communities with significant Black, Latino, and Native
109	109	American populations;
110	110	Whereas, while overall employment in newspaper, television,
111	111	radio, and digital newsrooms dropped by roughly 26 per-
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115	115	cent, or 30,000 jobs, between 2008 and 2020, the plunge
116	116	in newspaper newsrooms alone was much worse at 57
117	117	percent, or 40,000 jobs, during that same time period;
118	118	Whereas the number of news employees in the radio broad-
119	119	casting industry dropped by 26 percent between 2008
120	120	and 2020;
121	121	Whereas nearly 15,000 media jobs, including jobs in the
122	122	newspaper industry and broadcasting, were lost in 2024;
123	123	Whereas, between January and September 2024, digital-na-
124	124	tive publications and legacy media outlets laid off ap-
125	125	proximately 2,500 journalists, and many of those publica-
126	126	tions shuttered during the last year;
127	127	Whereas beat reporting, meaning the day-to-day coverage of
128	128	a particular field that allows a journalist to develop ex-
129	129	pertise and cultivate sources, has ceased to be a viable
130	130	career for would-be journalists due to the decimation of
131	131	newsroom budgets;
132	132	Whereas requests submitted under section 552 of title 5,
133	133	United States Code (commonly referred to as ‘‘Freedom
134	134	of Information Act requests’’), by local newspapers to
135	135	local, State, and Federal agencies fell by nearly 50 per-
136	136	cent between 2005 and 2010, demonstrating a significant
137	137	drop in the extent to which local reporters request gov-
138	138	ernment records;
139	139	Whereas, according to the Pew Research Center, newspapers
140	140	in the United States saw a decline in advertising revenue
141	141	of almost 60 percent between 2013 and 2023;
142	142	Whereas the sponsorship revenue of all-news radio stations
143	143	dropped by 25 percent between 2019 and 2021;
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147	147	Whereas there remains a significant gender disparity in news-
148	148	room employment, with women comprising approximately
149	149	1
150	150	⁄3of staff who are 30 years of age or older;
151	151	Whereas women who are local television news anchors and re-
152	152	porters, especially women of color, are often subject to
153	153	harassment and stalking;
154	154	Whereas, across the United States, there are nearly 300
155	155	media outlets that primarily serve Black communities,
156	156	and, in recent years, many of those newspapers have
157	157	seen—
158	158	(1) significant losses in advertising revenue as small
159	159	businesses in their communities were forced to close; and
160	160	(2) declines in circulation due to the closures of
161	161	businesses in their communities;
162	162	Whereas the number of Black journalists working at daily
163	163	newspapers dropped by 40 percent between 1997 and
164	164	2014, more than for any other demographic group, and
165	165	the exodus of journalists from local news outlets exacer-
166	166	bated by the economic fallout from the COVID–19 pan-
167	167	demic, and declining news readership and circulation, has
168	168	been disproportionately borne by Black constituencies;
169	169	Whereas the number of print media sources published by and
170	170	for Native American readers has shrunk dramatically in
171	171	recent years, from 700 media outlets in 1998 to only 200
172	172	in 2018;
173	173	Whereas Tribally-owned news outlets are often dependent on
174	174	Tribal governments for funding, but most of those outlets
175	175	lack the policy structure necessary to fully protect jour-
176	176	nalistic independence;
177	177	Whereas a 2018 survey by the Native American Journalists
178	178	Association found that 83 percent of respondents believed
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182	182	that Native press coverage of Tribal government affairs
183	183	was sometimes, frequently, or always censored;
184	184	Whereas there are more than 620 Latino news media outlets
185	185	in the United States, including more than 275 independ-
186	186	ently owned print publications, and collectively those
187	187	news media outlets primarily rely on a declining adver-
188	188	tising revenue base;
189	189	Whereas the lack of local news impacts communities that
190	190	speak languages other than English, which are often ex-
191	191	cluded from national media coverage;
192	192	Whereas investments in local journalism have mainly focused
193	193	on larger media markets, contributing to inequities and
194	194	a journalistic divide between affluent and low-income
195	195	communities;
196	196	Whereas student journalists, at the college and high school
197	197	level, have stepped in to play an important role reporting
198	198	on their local communities despite the lack of educational
199	199	resources and support;
200	200	Whereas the Pew Research Center reports that nearly 1 in
201	201	10 statehouse reporters are student journalists;
202	202	Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic took a substantial eco-
203	203	nomic toll on the local news industry, contributing to
204	204	budget cuts, staff layoffs, and scores of newsroom clo-
205	205	sures, from which the industry has yet to fully recover,
206	206	as epitomized by mass layoffs and closures at several
207	207	local news outlets in the 50 States and the District of
208	208	Columbia since 2023;
209	209	Whereas PEN America proposed ‘‘a major reimagining of the
210	210	local news space’’ in its 2019 call-to-action report, ‘‘Los-
211	211	ing the News: The Decimation of Local Journalism and
212	212	the Search for Solutions’’, and called on society and the
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216	216	Federal Government to urgently address the alarming de-
217	217	mise of local journalism; and
218	218	Whereas, half a century ago, Congress perceived that the
219	219	commercial television industry would not independently
220	220	provide the educational and public interest broadcasting
221	221	that was appropriate and necessary for the United
222	222	States, and, informed by an independent report prepared
223	223	by the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television,
224	224	created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which
225	225	has since ensured that radio and television include public
226	226	interest educational and reporting programs using annu-
227	227	ally appropriated funds: Now, therefore, be it
228	228	Resolved, That the Senate— 1
229	229	(1) designates April 2025 as ‘‘Preserving and 2
230	230	Protecting Local News Month’’; 3
231	231	(2) affirms that local news serves an essential 4
232	232	function in the democracy of the United States; 5
233	233	(3) recognizes local news as a public good; and 6
234	234	(4) acknowledges the valuable contributions of 7
235	235	local journalism towards the maintenance of healthy 8
236	236	and vibrant communities. 9
237	237	Æ
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