Senators, including Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, are warning the Federal Communications Commission about its treatment of reporters after a CQ Roll Call reporter was manhandled Thursday.

“The Federal Communications Commission needs to take a hard look at why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. As The Washington Post pointed out, it’s standard operating procedure for reporters to ask questions of public officials after meetings and news conferences,” the Iowa Republican said. “It happens all day, every day. There’s no good reason to put hands on a reporter who’s doing his or her job.”

A pair of Senate Democrats are separately pressing the FCC for answers about the treatment of CQ Roll Call’s John M. Donnelly at Thursday’s open FCC hearing.

“Yesterday’s incident at the FCC is not an isolated one and seems to be a part of a larger pattern of hostility towards the press characteristic of this Administration, which underscores our serious concern. Recent examples … make this most recent incident a new low point in a disturbing trend,” Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Tom Udall of New Mexico wrote in a letter.

Donnelly, the senior defense reporter at CQ Roll Call and the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Team chairman and president of the Military Reporters & Editors Association, described being pinned by a pair of FCC security personnel when he attempted to question Commissioner Michael O’Rielly for a story that was not related to the day’s debate about net neutrality.