[Fascist] Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech

Human Events ^ | Dec 18, 2006 | Amanda B. Carpenter

[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).

[CWOJackson]

There's still a difference, Clinton would keep the porn sites open.

[Harpo Speaks]

Well, that's true...and expect his membership to be "comp'ed," as well.

[headstamp]

I'm waiting for her face to explode.

[CottShop]

democrats run for office while holding babies in their left hands, (Well, those babies that they didn't Abort) while clutching a shiv beneath their church gowns http://sacredscoop.com

[TBP]

Trying to control who may speak and how is what totalitarians do, not people who are for freedom. Measures like this reveal the real Democrat agenda and it isn't pretty.

[Jay777]

I'm spreading the news to the blogs!

[TBP]

Remember to include talk radio.

Rush, SEan, Levin,a nd Savage would all eat it up.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Time for prayers up for this Republic--and a virtual punch in the nose to those who threw away their (R) votes this November and gave themselves and all of us this scorched Kelo'ed earth.

Lady Liberty is at great risk.

We must find ways to motivate more people to effectively and peacefully use their citizenship powers--while we have them.

[Humidston]

Well, it's been relatively quiet these past six years and we've enjoyed GW's presidency. I guess it's time to fire up the engines again....

Dammit

[burzum]

C'mon people! Enough complaining about the election. Focus on the future and problems like this. We can't change the past but we sure as heck can use these stupid moves by Pelosi to rally conservatives for the next election. And hopefully we can rally GWB to veto any bill that remotely tries to limit political speech in any form.

If enough publicity is cast onto Pelosi's suggestion it will wither from the sunshine of publicity. This is entirely un-American and most Americans will be able to see it for what it is. This was an incredible blunder by Pelosi to even suggest these restrictions. If it gets into public debate the Republicans have nothing to lose and everything to gain as they rip the Democrats a new ***hole.

[NormsRevenge]

Free Speech Coalition: Public Citizen has 'Ethics' Problem With its Grassroots Lobbying Legislation


MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Grassroots leaders today told Joan Claybrook, President of Washington-based Public Citizen, that grassroots legislation being crafted by Public Citizen for Speaker-Elect Pelosi in the name of ethics and lobbying reform is "hypocrisy" since it would help protect the culture of corruption in Washington.


The Virginia-based Free Speech Coalition, Inc. told Ms. Claybrook in a letter signed by 47 grassroots leaders (http://freespeechcoalition.org/pdfs/ClaybrookLetterAndAnalysis.pdf) that the grassroots reporting and penalty provisions being crafted by Public Citizen and others violate the First Amendment rights of small citizen action groups, yet create loopholes for big corporations, unions, trade associations and membership special interests such as Public Citizen itself.


"Public Citizen fails to disclose how the grassroots legislation would hurt citizen advocates and critics, protect big special interests and assist corruption in Washington," said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, who added, "Public Citizen, with its eight-figure assets and multi-million dollar revenues, shows no shame in being less than honest about so-called 'honest government' legislation."


Public Citizen acknowledges it is helping craft legislation for Speaker- Elect Nancy Pelosi modeled after her 2006 legislation, H.R. 4682. The bill would treat communications to the general public more harshly under lobbying disclosure law than actual lobbying conducted by high-priced K Street lobbyists. The new legislation won't be available until the next Congress convenes, but its model, H.R. 4682, would create unprecedented restrictions and penalties, potentially criminal, on the free exercise of First Amendment rights by citizens to speak, publish, associate and petition the government.


First Amendment lawyer and Co-Counsel for the Free Speech Coalition, William J. Olson, said, "The Public Citizen/Pelosi bill would allow corporations, unions and even foreign interests to spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars mobilizing their shareholders, officers, employees and members, yet hide those expenditures. On the flipside, their bill would require real citizen associations to essentially obtain Congress's consent to communicate about important policy matters that impact on them. It's not just the imbalance that is wrong; it's a frontal attack on the First Amendment and political speech."


"The grassroots legislation may be the most expansive and wrongly targeted regulation of First Amendment rights ever written," added lawyer Mark Fitzgibbons. "We hope that Democrats who pledged reform when campaigning will target real corruption instead of the rights of citizens to participate in their democracy," he concluded. Free Speech Coalition Co-Counsel, Mark Weinberg, expressed confidence that his fellow liberal Democrats will see the light and correct these inequities.


The letter to Ms. Claybrook, along with an analysis of the grassroots provisions, is at http://freespeechcoalition.org/pdfs/ClaybrookLetterAndAnalysis.pdf.


Free Speech Coalition, Inc. 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 1070, McLean, Virginia, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that protects the First Amendment rights of advocacy. It was founded in 1993,

[NormsRevenge]

link to above press release..

Free Speech Coalition: Public Citizen has 'Ethics' Problem With its Grassroots Lobbying Legislation

[Humidston]

...Wouldn't it be fun to watch Nan and Hill do a few rounds in a Jello pit? Or maybe just give them some dueling pistols and see who wins? I'd pay good money to see that.

[Prokopton]

"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."

Gee, wasn't this when the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate? We didn't need Pelosi for our "leaders" to sell us out, they've been doing it just fine with Republicans in control. Remember campaign finance reform? Passed by Republican controlled House and Senate and signed by a Republican President. Pelosi is just more of the same.

[abigailsmybaby]

Not too much different than what we got from citizen McCain is it?

[leadpenny]

dmw? Your screen name doesn't ring a bell but I'll hazard a guess - - you're another thread-jumping simpleton who can no more distinguish between issues than he can distinguish between conservatism and being a member of the Republican Party.

Close?

[leadpenny]

If enough publicity is cast onto Pelosi's suggestion it will wither from the sunshine of publicity. This is entirely un-American and most Americans will be able to see it for what it is.

Exactly.

[GoodWithBarbarians JustForKaos]

bttt

[Caipirabob]

It's to teach us all a lesson

Yep, in the same vein as the lesson the Nazi's taught Poland.

[beyond the sea]

We must always remain vigilant and even more so with this diabolical group in power.

(onyx, I talk to you like this because I know you to have a calm demeanor and will try to understand my following words. I have no argument with you, but I do have one with the disinterested and sleeping American public, and with the media that consciously and purposefully serves to make and keep them that way.)

****

"remain vigilant", what's that?

Send off a few letters to the local newspaper editorial staff? Write a polite letter to your Congressman? LOL.

(jmo) It's way past time for people to get to the streets, go to D.C., and shut that pathetic, spinelss place down.

Campaign Finance Reform was the last straw for me. When I saw the little or no anger or action exhibited on the part of the voting public after that abomination was passed and allowed to go forward, I for one knew this country was nearly completely rotted to death. To think of the incredible sacrifices that The Founders and their families made for this country. To see you write, "We must always remain vigilant and even more so with this diabolical group in power," just makes me laugh with unwanted derision. Sorry, it's time for more than that.

"Vigilant" --- what a laugh. Vigilant means observant and watchful. Pardon me, but it's time for much more than that.