Contact: Daniel Son, 202-226-4379

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Congressman Mike Pence filed an amendment to the omnibus spending bill that would prevent the so-called Fairness Doctrine from being restored through the end of the fiscal year. The same amendment received overwhelming bipartisan support in the 110th Congress and became law, but that prohibition is currently set to expire with the continuing resolution on March 6.

"The American people cherish freedom, especially freedom of speech and of the press. That was why President Reagan repealed the so-called Fairness Doctrine back in 1987. For more than four decades, the federal government regulated the content of American talk radio and some of the most powerful Democrats in the House and Senate would like to see it restored.

"Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine today would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airways.

"Along with my colleague Greg Walden, I have re-introduced the Broadcaster Freedom Act that would take the power away from this Administration and any future President to restore the Fairness Doctrine without an act of Congress.

"While a permanent ban is ideal, in the short-term the Pence amendment would reassure freedom-loving Americans that the national asset of talk radio would remain free from censorship for the next year.

"I am confident that if the Pence amendment receives a vote, it will pass overwhelmingly as it did in the previous Congress. Because when freedom gets an up or down vote in the People's House, freedom always wins."

NOTE: H.R. 1105, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 combines 9 overdue appropriations bills, each in a separate division of the bill plus a 10th division with additional Homeland Security provisions.