PENCE, REPUBLICAN HOUSE LEADERS ANNOUNCE DISCHARGE PETITION TO BAN THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Mike Pence will deliver the following remarks at a press conference this afternoon announcing a discharge petition to bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the floor of the U.S. House. The Broadcaster Freedom Act would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the Fairness Doctrine without and act of Congress. “The time has come to do away with the Fairness Doctrine once and for all. While June saw 309 Members of this House vote for an amendment to ban the Fairness Doctrine for the next fiscal year, more must be done to ensure that this archaic regulation of the airwaves of America can never return. “The Broadcaster Freedom Act would ensure that no future president could regulate the airwaves of America without an act of Congress but it has yet to be scheduled for a vote. “This morning, along with the Republican leadership and Congressman Greg Walden, I filed a discharge petition on the Broadcaster Freedom Act. The American people should know that if 218 Members of Congress sign this petition, we can demand an up-or-down vote on legislation that would keep the Fairness Doctrine from ever coming back. “To my colleagues in Congress I respectfully say, ‘If you oppose the Fairness Doctrine, sign the petition. If you cherish the dynamic national asset that is American talk radio, sign the petition. If you simply believe that broadcast freedom deserves an up or down vote on the floor of the People’s House, sign the petition.’ “To those who join me here today, the Republican Leader, John Boehner, Republican Whip Roy Blunt, Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor, Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, and especially Congressman Walden, a former broadcaster and radio station owner, I want to say thank you for your tireless work in opposition to broadcast censorship. “Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airwaves. It is dangerous to suggest that the government should be in the business of rationing free speech. During my years in radio and television, I developed a great respect for a free and independent press. Since being in Congress, I have been the recipient of praise and criticism from broadcast media, but it has not changed my fundamental belief that a free and independent press must be vigorously defended by those who love liberty. “Unfortunately, some of the nation’s most powerful elected officials have said that Congress should bring back this outright regulation of the American political debate. Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, Senator Barbara Feinstein and Senator John Kerry have openly advocated for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. Meanwhile, the top Democratic leadership of the House united this summer during consideration of the Financial Services Appropriations bill in opposition to my amendment, a one-year moratorium on the Fairness Doctrine. “John F. Kennedy stated, ‘We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.’ “America is a nation of freedom and strong opinion. Our government must not be afraid to entrust our good people with all the facts and opinions necessary to make choices as an informed electorate. That is what democracy is all about. “When 309 Members voted in June in support of the Pence Amendment to ban the Fairness Doctrine for just one year, they demonstrated the broad, bipartisan support that exists in the House for ending the specter of the Fairness Doctrine once and for all. We are confident that these Members would like the opportunity to vote to make the ban on the Fairness Doctrine permanent. It is in service to the will of an overwhelming majority of Members who expressed their support for banning the Fairness Doctrine that we introduced the petition today to bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the floor. “I urge all my colleagues, but especially those who supported broadcast freedom earlier this year, to sign the Discharge Petition for H.R. 2905 and bring the Broadcaster Freedom Act to the floor of this Congress. If 218 Members of Congress will sign the Discharge Petition on H.R. 2905, the Broadcaster Freedom Act will come to the floor and it will pass because, as we witnessed in yesterday’s vote on the Free Flow of Information Act, when freedom gets an up or down vote in the People’s House, freedom always wins.”