Zoe Lofgren: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman has laid out the case quite eloquently. I simply wanted to say that…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. The gentleman has laid out the case quite eloquently. I simply wanted to say that, while the government could never own or should never own the news media, we may have a role to create an environment where local news can flourish without our saying in any way how or what they should cover. But we know that local news covers local stories, and without the local news, you will never find out what is going on in city hall, what is going on in the board of supervisors, and what is going on on the planning commission and the like. So what Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Cicilline, and others have outlined here is a very important challenge for the United States of America. If we are going to have control of our governments, we need to have information; and if we are going to have information, then we need to have a free press all the way from city hall up to the White House. We have got some holes in that coverage right now. So, Mr. Speaker, I commend Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Cicilline, and others for the efforts that they are making, and I look forward to supporting them as they move forward. Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).”