Posted on 12/15/2006 6:03:14 PM PST by Jim Robinson
House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.
The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.
The report would include identifying the organization’s expenditures, the issues focused on and the members of Congress and other federal officials who are the subject of the advocacy efforts. A separate report would be required for each policy issue the group is active on.
“Right now, grassroots groups don’t have to report at all if they are communicating with the public,” said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. “This is an effort that would become a major attack on the 1st Amendment.”
Under the bill, communications aimed at an organization’s members, employees, officers or shareholders would be exempt from the reporting requirement. That would effectively exempt most corporations, trade associations and unions from the reporting requirements—but not most conservative grassroots groups, which frequently are less formally organized.
Larger, well-funded organizations are also currently eligible for a “low-dollar lobbyist exemption” that Pelosi’s bill does not give to grassroots organizations. If an organization retains a lobbyist to contact lawmakers directly at a cost of $2,500 per quarter or less, or employs a full-time lobbyist at a cost of $10,000 per quarter or less, the organization does not have to report to the government.
Public Citizen, a liberal “government watchdog,” is taking credit for helping Pelosi craft the legislation and expects the final draft of the bill to closely resemble Pelosi’s Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, which contains these provisions.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, said the changes would help “streamline” how grassroots organizations are regulated by the IRS and other laws. Public Citizen would like Congress to adopt the IRS’s definition of “lobbying,” which includes communication that encourages the general public to contact a member of Congress on pending legislation or public policy.
“The IRS has a definition that requires all organizations, including non-profits, to file as a part of our tax returns,” Holman said. “When it comes to the election code and the lobbying disclosure act, they have no definition of grassroots lobbying. It’s excluded from everything. The IRS has a definition of grassroots lobbying, but their information is not publicly reported. It’s just our tax returns to the IRS.”
Suzanne Coffman, director of communication for Guidestar.org, which makes IRS 990 forms available on the Internet, said any secular, non-profit organization that has more than $25,000 in income per year is required by law to make the last three years worth of tax forms available upon request. “We get them directly from the IRS, and we have more than two million 990s online” said Coffman. “For non-charitable organizations, like private charities or private foundations, we have fewer because the IRS began scanning those only in April 2005. They focused on charitable organizations, which make up the bulk of exempt organizations, because those are the ones that accept tax-deductible contributions. The need for accountability is much higher with them than with other types of organizations which are sort of subsidized by the taxpayer because they federally are tax exempt, but not like a charity is.”
Public Citizen’s public IRS 990 disclosure forms show that it raised more than $3 million in 2005. That year, the group spent $297, 431 on mail and $178,182 on consulting and professional fees.
A coalition of grassroots organizers, including David Keene of the American Conservative Union, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America and Terrence Scanlon of the Capitol Research Center, have written an open letter calling on Public Citizen to renounce its efforts, which they called “flawed to the point of hypocrisy.”
“This bill would apply to those who have no Washington-based lobbyists, who provide no money or gifts to members of Congress, and who merely seek to speak, associate and petition the government,” it said. “Regulating the speech, publishing, association and petitioning rights of citizens is not targeted at corruption in Washington, as Public Citizen and its supporters would believe. Instead, it is targeted directly at the 1st-Amendment rights of citizens and their voluntary associations.”
The Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, which made some of these changes, was actually approved by both the House and the Senate in the 109th Congress, but failed to make it through a conference committee.
To help dramatize the bill this time around, Pelosi is planning to assign sponsorship of various amendments to incoming freshman, which they will promote in their maiden House floor speeches.
Current law prevents former members of Congress and senior staff as well as senior executive staff from lobbying for one year. Pelosi’s proposal would extend that to two years and completely ban members and staff from accepting gifts, meals and privately sponsored travel.
Miss Carpenter is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS. She is the author of "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy's Dossier on Hillary Rodham Clinton," published by Regnery (a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
I think she would do everything possible to duck debating Newt. If you ever watch how he handles Alan Colmes it's a pretty good clue how he would handle her..... and as she would get shrill (unless they sedate her and she slurs instead) he would keep the same steady tone with a twinkle in his eye and a wry grin the whole time.
From the results of the '06 election, this is what the American voter wants.
The Democrats are coming after Conservative forums such as Free Republic and Conservative talk radio next.
By the time '08 gets here and Hillary runs for President both Conservative talk radio and Conservative internet forums will be neutralized.
You're right. I know ohioWfan worked for the GOP and DeWine and even put a sign in her yard. He wasn't perfect, but voters from out of your state really had no business bashing him, when Sherrod Brown, his opponent, was so much worse.
I wouldn't take anything for granted.
Wise words. Even a man with a good heart like our President can make mistakes like signing CFR. Then there are those we know we can't trust, like McCain, and those who are just bad news, like Hillary.
It won't be enforced on the liberals.
And your interpretation is pretty much correct, too.
In the primaries, I will support any conservative over McCain or Giuliani.
I do not expect either to survive the primaries if there is a conservative present.
I will vote for some other Republican by write-in vote if McCain wins the primaries. I have a personal grudge against him, and I will not relent. He is a liar.
McCain will be a co-sponsor in the Senate.
Well, if you are part of the Rosie O'Donnell wing of the Republican party that keeps throwing crap at the religious folks, maybe you should have the Republican party all to yourself...
I am saying this as a unapologetic atheist and I'll vote with my feet if you moderate suck jobs put some spineless weasel out there to lose it for us...
I have been here a good long while (Nov. '99) and I have to be in the mood to waste time posting back and forth with them.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh FR Neil Wright is there, as I recall
My wife and I had vacation in Kennebunkport in October 2004 and spoke with the owner of the big pro-Bush restaurant in town as well as the staffers of the local Bush-Cheney HQ - all female. They were all immensely proud that they had elected two Republican Women to the Senate.
No, they aren't conservative -- but to expect to elect conservative Republican Senators in the Northeast is not rational. They did both support the judicial nominees, and true conservatives should be glad that they did. We know for sure that 'Rats from New England never would have supported the SCOTUS nominees or Janice Rogers Brown.
It will be put up or shut up for Hillary, who a few years back advocated regulation (suppression) of the blogosphere.
Agreed! It was the MSM that even made this an issue back in 1999. And that's when people starting talking about it.
Hell, "reform" is a winning word. But you can't sell "reform" as a way to stop people talking to the people they elect. How can the MSM generate a "groundswell" for this sorry objective?
That's right --- it's not going to happen. Some states will only elect moderate Republicans WHEN we're lucky.
Same goes for the two Maine senators. Yes, they're liberals on most issues, but they both carry lifetime ACU ratings in the 50's whereas the democrats in neighboring states have ACU ratings in the single digits and teens!
Don't let the door hit you in the A$$ on your way out.
Never, Jim. Never, never, never.
This nation is based on grassroots organizations that Declared to the world we would no longer live as a continent under the tyranny of an island.
D.C. has become that island. They have become 100 times the tyrant fat King George was.
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