The main purpose of the Periodical Press Galleries is to credential correspondents from magazines, newsletters, non-daily newspapers and online publications.
Each house passed regulations independently of one another to limit lobbyists and claim agents of the Revolutionary and Civil War pensioners from obtaining press credentials.
The Senate adopted a similar stance in 1841, permitting only bona fide correspondents access to a special press gallery.
This press gallery was to be supervised by a body of reporters called the Standing Committee of Correspondents, who first published Rules for Membership in 1879.
[6] The increasing appearance of trade journals and business magazines following World War I, along with the widespread prevalence of radio as a news medium, demonstrated the need for additional media galleries.
[7] In 1933, radio correspondents from an independent news service of CBS applied for admission to the Daily Press Galleries.
In 1939, Fulton Lewis Jr. of Mutual Broadcasting System also applied to the Daily Press Gallery and was subsequently denied.
The Executive Committee also addresses any concerns of its membership, including press access, workspace, and Gallery employees.
In 1946, physical office space was obtained in the House wing of the Capitol Building, where correspondents were given access to a telephone booth and room to set up typewriters and hang hats.
[5] The House Periodical Press Gallery office space was later reassigned in 1971 to H-304 of the Capitol Building, its current location.
That decision was later reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who held that credentialing members of the Periodical Gallery was a function protected by the Speech or Debate Clause, because it falls within the “legitimate legislative sphere.” The Court reasoned that the Executive Committee was acting pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives and the Standing Rules of the Senate which are promulgated pursuant to the Rulemaking Clause of the Constitution, and thus that the Executive Committee acted pursuant to authority “which the Constitution places with the jurisdiction of either House.” Also, the court reasoned that the actions of the Executive Committee were an “integral part of the legislative machinery,” and therefore an “integral part of the deliberation process.” Accordingly, the suit was dismissed because the Speech or Debate Clause rendered the Executive Committee immune from suit.
The Executive Committee denied him credentials under Rule II, concluding that Schreibman was not a full-time journalist, he did not receive a salary, and that FINS was not published for profit.