Senate Proceeding on Mar 24th, 2009 :: 1:39:45 to 1:45:25
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1:39:45 to 1:45:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Benjamin L. Cardin

1:39:52 to 1:40:12( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: floor. a senator: the presiding officer: the junior senator from maryland. mr. cardin: thank you, madam president. first, let me congratulate my colleague from maryland and my colleague from utah for their leadership on this legislation. this is extremely important legislation, expanding the opportunities for people to

1:40:13 to 1:40:33( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: serve our country in national service. and both have been leaders on this issue for many years. and i'm pleased that we're on the verge of really expanding opportunity, particularly for young meaningful impact in helping their communities. madam president, i would ask consent that i can speak for up

1:40:34 to 1:40:54( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. cardin: thank you, madam president. i take this time to announce to my colleagues legislation that i will be filing today. the newspaper revitalization act. i do let me first start with a quote from thomas jeffe

1:40:55 to 1:41:16( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: was vilified by newspapers daily. he said once, "if i had to choose between government without newspapers and newspapers without government, i wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter." i think that thomas jefferson was pointing out an obvious fact, that the importance of newspapers to a free democracy and to our country.

1:41:17 to 1:41:39( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: from watergate tobacco to enron, newspapers have helped to inform the public of the important issues of our time. we depend so much on newspapers, particularly for our local communities. well, madam president, they're in trouble today. community newspapers are going into bankruptcy.

1:41:40 to 1:42:01( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: they're closing their they're eliminating local coverage. we have found around our nation "the seattle post, ," rocky mountain news, the san francisco chronicle, and in my own city of baltimore, the baltimore sun are either in bankruptcy or facing bankruptcy.

1:42:02 to 1:42:23( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the lists are continuing. the reason is quite is simple. some say it's the economy. it's more than the economy. it's the change in the way americans get news today. advertising revenues for local papers are way down because of the many avenues available for advertisers to get a message across to their -- to consumers.

1:42:24 to 1:42:46( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the problem is that we depend upon the local news in order to develop our local stories and to cover our local events. and as local papers are closing, we're tradition in america, critically important to our communities, critically important to our democracy. so the legislation that i am

1:42:47 to 1:43:08( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: filing today, the revitalization act, offers an opportunity to save our local papers it allows them to be nonprofits, to operate like we do in the, in many of the other media areas such opportunity for nonprofits to

1:43:09 to 1:43:30( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: operate our local community papers. now this is not going to be an option that a lot of papers will choose. they want to make profit. they want to do their commercial. they want to make endorsements of candidates. but for some papers, it will allow us to save local newspapers. the restriction on going nonprofit would be that you

1:43:31 to 1:43:51( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: could not endorse candidates. you can certainly report on elections. but it will allow your investors to be able to make contributions and have the advantage of our tax code. it would operate, we hope, without the

1:43:52 to 1:44:13( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: concern of having to have advertisin advertising dollars, because they can rely more on contributors who want to preserve local press for their community. some might say this would be a loss of revenue for the taxpayers of this country. the answer is no. most of these community papers are losing money today. they're not paying taxes. we're trying to save an avenue available for our community.

1:44:14 to 1:44:35( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: we're trying to save not only local jobs -- and it will save local jobs -- a community to their newspaper. and quite frankly, in my lifetime, i've seen many of our municipalities go from two newspapers, daily newspapers down to one, now to none. and the local content is in many

1:44:36 to 1:44:57( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: cases is nonexistent. so i hope my colleagues will effort to try to preserve a great tradition in america that's important for our democracy, important for our community, and i think we'd be doing the right thing if we allow community papers to have the option to become a nonprofit. it doesn't require them to, but

1:44:58 to 1:45:21( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: the option to become a nonprofit so we can save community papers. and with that, madam president, i would yield the floor and i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

1:45:22 to 1:45:27( Edit History Discussion )

Benjamin L. Cardin: quorum call: