HB347 is a disturbing assault on the first amendment

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26. This bill restates existing law in that regard.

Sorry if you can't deal with that reality but if you compare Section 1752 as it exists today and how it will exist once the president signs this bill, you'll see that there is no substantive difference beyond the fact that under the amended law the White House, the VP's residence, and the grounds of the WH and VP's residence are added to the areas covered by the law. That's pretty much it.

Here is the description from the House of why the bill was introduced and enacted:

"Current law prohibits unlawful entries upon any restricted building or ground where the President, Vice President or other protectee is temporarily visiting. However, there is no Federal law that expressly prohibits unlawful entry to the White House and its grounds or the Vice President's residence and its grounds.

The Secret Service must therefore rely upon a provision in the District of Columbia Code, which addresses only minor misdemeanor infractions, when someone attempts to or successfully trespasses upon the grounds of the White House or Vice President's residence or, worse, breaches the White House or Vice President's residence itself.

H.R. 347 remedies this problem by specifically including the White House, the Vice President's residence, and their respective grounds in the definition of restricted buildings and grounds for purposes of Section 1752."

In short, this bill makes the Salahi's gate crashing stunt a violation of Section 1752, whereas under the law prior to this amendment, Section 1752 didn't cover the Salahi's stunt.


By the way, the 2004 G8, the 2009 G-20, the 2000 IMF meeting were all designated as national special security events subject to Secret Service oversight. Which explains why there were no protests at any of those events, right?

Final point: Rahm doesn't have the power to invoke this provision. Designation of an event as a National Special Secruity Event is handled by the DHS,not by a mayor. And Rahm wouldn't need to ask DHS to make the designation -- based on past history they would do so whether he asked or not. And the designation doesn't much matter since even if it wasn't designated, it would fall under the law's existing (pre HR 347) scope because the President will be "temporarily visiting" the G8 summit.

Sorry to deflate your balloon with facts.