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).
Let's hope they do .. but I don't hold much faith these days
"Good thing those morons who claim to be conservatives but wanted to 'teach the Republican party a lesson' have to suffer along with the rest of us. Maybe THEY will learn a few lessons."
What makes you think they really are conservative?
I've never known may stupid conservatives and some of the posts from those "teach em a lesson" types were nothing but stupidity on parade.
This is being proposed by 'Rats, not the President.
You just couldn't resist a chance to post a scenario that would attack the President and the Republicans, could you?
They're here
Sadly, with the house in control of the dems, this will pass the house. In fact, CFR passed the House in 2002 with a House Republican majority.
The Senate should filibuster this new bill, but there is no reason to hope. McCain's CFR passed 60/40 in 2002. That Senate nearly resembles this one. McCain should support it given his CFR record.
But.....Maybe not; it gives him a chance to oppose something similar to his CFR of 2002. This could be the dems giving him a chance to be the Pubbie candidate in 2008. That way the libs can't lose.
A dem lib or a pubblie lib no matter which way the vote goes. Liberaldom will be happy despite the candidate. And during the campaign, they know they can pound him with the Keating Five corruption charges that he's never answered for.
This could be the "McCain Rehabilitation Act of 2007."
Hugo Chavez must be proud.
Oh goodie! More to come.
The Bush-Haters have shown up.
I have it on GOOD word that they're mostly on the Bob Barr thread.
You can bet your ass that moveon.org will be exempt.
Yes. He can call it the 'freedom to be heard act', or some such drivel. He got away with it with CFR. The sheeple will celebrate 'reform' as their const. rights are fleeced right before their eyes.
This is exactly why we have to come back in '08. BTW, I believe we will.
Beats me, I voted -- the right way. Save this for all the people saying it won't matter if Hillary wins because she isn't any worse than our RINO's.
For some.... it's going to take more than a boulder.
McCain, yes. Rudy, I'm not so sure... Newt, I think no.
I have been among the stauchest of Bush-bots and have the posts to prove it.
However, it is time for me to start looking around for a conservative to support in 2008.
The major criteria: he must be conservative AND he must be able to win.
One thing I am positive of. That will not be GW.
I wish The Gipper were available. We could sure use him about right now. He'd be pointing out the right direction in the war on terror and he'd have the ability to sell his ideas over top of the media's heads.
I'll miss GW, but I had tears when the Gipper left office.
No way traitor Puhlousey.
Check-in to Leavenworth where you belong--globalist traitor. GRRRR.
Soooooooooooooooooooo hideous.
Lord, God, please protect us from such treasonous idiots. Show us how we can short-circuit their evil designs on destroying our Republic.
I think this issue should cause us to make as much noise as any and as possible.
Usuallu they put it the other way around; "Why vote for that RINO? He/She ain't no diffurnt than them Democrats!
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