Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has once again put S. 448, Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, otherwise known as the reporters shield bill, on the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s next business meeting.
The next meeting will be Thursday 12/10/09 at 10AM.
RBR-TVBR observation: Push may be coming to shove for this bill, which already went through revisions at the request of the administration and which has always enjoyed bipartisan support.
Indeed, the version before the Committee has Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on board as a co-sponsor. But Republicans in the Committee still have over 20 amendments they wish to have considered. Committee members, including Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are planning to hash it out over the weekend of 12/5-6, and how the hashing out goes will to a large degree determine what happens at Thursday’s markup.
Leahy and Schumer have indicated they are ready to take the bill directly to the Senate floor without the Committee’s stamp of approval.
