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).
We have posters on this very thread already convinced that it doesn't matter who is in the White House because GWB would sign this fascism into law anyway.
Onyx is right -- they should be at the Barr thread, trying to relive the glory days of the Reform Party and make the world safe for another Clinton Presidency.
LOL! So are divorce laws, child custody laws, abortion laws, the war on drugs...shall I go on?
The HAVE to shut us up for Hillary to win in 2008. The next two years are going to set a new record for nastiness with the Dems in control and her Heiness running for POTUS.
We need to keep on top of this.!!!!!
We should consider one centralized list we can copy and paste from. Basically one click, one drag, and bam, not a bunch of other details which don't belong in the TO field of an email address. It would take forever to edit.
Something like this, although this may not be up to date (nor complete):
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Neil.Abercrombie@mail.house.gov, Anibal@mail.house.gov, gary_ackerman@mail.house.gov, jay.inslee@mail.house.gov, rick.larsen@mail.house.gov, brian.baird@mail.house.gov, adam.smith@mail.house.gov, senator@boxer.senate.gov, lynn.woolsey@mail.house.gov, George.Miller@mail.house.gov, sf.nancy@mail.house.gov, barbara.lee@mail.house.gov, budmail@mail.house.gov, budmail@mail.house.gov, snyder.congress@mail.house.gov, faleomavaega@mail.house.gov, ed.pastor@mail.house.gov, democratic.caucus@mail.house.gov, lynn.woolsey@mail.house.gov, zoegram@lofgren.house.gov, samfarr@mail.house.gov, gary.condit@mail.house.gov, lois.capps@mail.house.gov, brad.sherman@mail.house.gov, Howard.Berman@mail.house.gov, arcoiris@mail.house.gov, Rep.Harman@mail.house.gov, Millender.McDonald@mail.house.gov, talk2geb@mail.house.gov, loretta@mail.house.gov, degette@mail.house.gov, david.skaggs@mail.house.gov, Kennelly@mail.house.gov, bozrah@mail.house.gov, rep.boyd@mail.house.gov, thurman@mail.house.gov, pdeutsch.pub@mail.house.gov, alcee.pubhastings@mail.house.gov, cymck@mail.house.gov, john.lewis@mail.house.gov, guamtodc@mail.house.gov, neil.abercrombie@mail.house.gov, leach.ia01@mail.house.gov, rep.boswell.ia03@mail.house.gov, bobby.rush@mail.house.gov, luis.gutierrez@mail.house.gov, danny.davis@mail.house.gov, sidney.yates@mail.house.gov, jfc.il12@mail.house.gov, lane.evans@mail.house.gov, tim.roemer@mail.house.gov, in09.wyr@housemail.house.gov, rep.carson@mail.house.gov, john.olver@mail.house.gov, jim.mcgovern@mail.house.gov, mtmeehan@mail.house.gov, joe.moakley@mail.house.gov, william.delahunt@mail.house.gov, rep.cardin@mail.house.gov, rep.tomallen@mail.house.gov, stupak@mail.house.gov, jim.barcia-pub@mail.house.gov, debbie.stabenow@mail.house.gov, dkildee@mail.house.gov, david.bonior@mail.house.gov, slevin@mail.house.gov, john.conyers@mail.house.gov, martin.sabo@mail.house.gov, tell.bill@mail.house.gov, tocollin.peterson@mail.house.gov, oberstar@mail.house.gov, gephardt@mail.house.gov, ike.skelton@mail.house.gov, thompsonms2nd@mail.house.gov, gene.taylor@mail.house.gov, EClayton1@mail.house.gov, bob.etheridge@mail.house.gov, david.price@mail.house.gov, CongMcIntyre@mail.house.gov, nc12.public@mail.house.gov, Rep.Earl.Pomeroy@mail.house.gov, rob.andrews@mail.house.gov, bill.pascrell@mail.house.gov, steven.rothman@mail.house.gov, thomas.manton@mail.house.gov, jerrold.nadler@mail.house.gov, major.owens@mail.house.gov, rep.carolyn.maloney@mail.house.gov, rangel@mail.house.gov, jserrano@mail.house.gov, mike.mcnulty@mail.house.gov, mhinchey@mail.house.gov, louiseny@mail.house.gov, mike.oxley@mail.house.gov, ted.strickland@mail.house.gov, rep.kaptur@mail.house.gov, sherrod@mail.house.gov, telljim@mail.house.gov, rep.elizabeth.furse@mail.house.gov, write.earl@mail.house.gov, peter.defazio@mail.house.gov, darlene@mail.house.gov, paul.kanjorski@mail.house.gov, murtha@mail.house.gov, mchale@mail.house.gov, rep.doyle@mail.house.gov, robert.weygand@mail.house.gov, jclyburn@mail.house.gov, bob.clement@mail.house.gov, bart.gordon@mail.house.gov, john.tanner@mail.house.gov, hford@hr.house.gov, max.sandlin@mail.house.gov, rmhall@mail.house.gov, nick.lampson@mail.house.gov, lloyd.doggett@mail.house.gov, Rep.Hinojosa@mail.house.gov, silvestre.reyes@mail.house.gov, tx18@lee.house.gov, texas17@mail.house.gov, martin.frost@mail.house.gov, ken.bentsen@mail.house.gov, ask.gene@mail.house.gov, rep.e.b.johnson@mail.house.gov, owen.pickett@mail.house.gov, rep.goode@mail.house.gov, jim.moran@mail.house.gov, ninthnet@mail.house.gov, Donna.Green@mail.house.gov, bernie@mail.house.gov, adam.smith@mail.house.gov, ron.kind@mail.house.gov, jerry4wi@mail.house.gov, telltom@mail.house.gov, jay.johnson@mail.house.gov, bobwise@mail.house.gov, nrahall@mail.house.gov
UNITED STATES SENATE
John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov, senator@akaka.senate.gov, senator@biden.senate.gov, senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov, senator@breaux.senate.gov, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov, senator_carnahan@carnahan.senate.gov, senator@clinton.senate.gov, senator@conrad.senate.gov, senator@dodd.senate.gov, senator@dorgan.senate.gov, dick@durbin.senate.gov, russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov, senator@feinstein.senate.gov, bob_graham@graham.senate.gov, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov, vermont@jeffords.senate.gov, tim@johnson.senate.gov, senator@kennedy.senate.gov, john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov, senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov, senator@levin.senate.gov, blanche_lincoln@lincoln.senate.gov, senator@mikulski.senate.gov, senator_murray@murray.senate.gov, senator@billnelson.senate.gov, jack@reed.senate.gov, senator@rockefeller.senate.gov, senator@schumer.senate.gov, senator@stabenow.senate.gov, senator_torricelli@torricelli.senate.gov
"with this diabolical group in power..."
they're nothing but a bunch of left wing sc%$bags who will never admit they are left-wingers. the more they "accomplish", the more difficult it will be to undo.
their minions are at work in the population also. they are becoming the dog-waggers. when they speak, many people jump.
sic semper tyrannis
Clearly it won't be GW. He can't win as he's already served two. RR has already served two also, so he would be ineligible even if he was still alive.
The conservative wing of the Republican Party is somewhat low regarding the talent bank right now. Unless someone comes up in the next year it is likely going to be McCain or Rudy.
I forgot the link. There's more here:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/MEDIA_EMAIL_ADDRESSES.htm
Too many people are carelessly saying they will stay home or vote third party here lately because they don't like the options being offered our party in 2008. I'll take anyone (but please not McCain) over Hillary and any democrat... and I will NEVER, ever stay home or vote third party to do either is a vote for the rats.
Hey! Thank you for that! Looks good!
BUMP!
I don't believe that.
First of all, I don't think it has a chance of passing either house, but if it did, there's not the groundswell of support for signing it as there was for campaign finance reform.
Tell me how the MSM could get behind a bill designed to target organizations that encourage contact with congressmen.
That would be an impossible sell.
Plenty of time before '08.
We may need a prayer thread to save our democracy.
Neither McCain nor Rudy are even close to being conservatives.
It is impossible that there is not a capable conservative out there. The whole point of conservatism is that conservatives are independent and capable.
The conservative voices will break through, and then we'll support them.
We have a prayer thread for our nation and leaders everyday.
Wonder if Bob is aware that Soro's has been funding many of the Libertarian causes?
I worry they would slip it into a military spending bill... a favorite trick nowdays.
I am with you!!!
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