On the recordJune 2, 2015
This is the same parade of horribles that we heard last year before this body voted in favor of the Grayson amendment. It is almost the same, word for word. Last year, we heard that this somehow would allow people to self- certify. Well, in fact, anybody who self-certifies falsely in front of a grand jury is looking at a lot more than 83 days in jail. They are looking at 5 years in Federal prison. They would be prosecuted for perjury if they claimed to be a journalist and weren't actually a journalist--a fact that I pointed out last year before this amendment was actually passed. I also want to point out that there is no distinction between a grand jury and an actual jury for this purpose. Forty-nine States all agree that there is no distinction whatsoever. So it is simply false to say that this doesn't apply to grand jury proceedings. It certainly would apply and does apply to all grand jury proceedings at the State level. And there is nothing vague about this provision at all. In fact, the wording that has been referred to here, that the information has been attained as a journalist or reporter, is exactly the same wording that was in the Grayson amendment last year that passed with a margin of 42 votes. So none of these old attacks, these unsuccessful attacks, are anything new and deserve any more credence than they received from a majority of this body last year. I yield back the balance of my time.
