Provision aims to curb freedom of speech

By GARY CONNOR
The Palestine Herald

January 13, 2007 10:40 pm

— U.S. Senate Bill 1, designed to reduce corruption in the Washington lobbying process, contains a provision clearly intended to handcuff the effectiveness of grassroots organizations and their efforts to keep their members informed concerning federal legislation.
Focus on the Family Action Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., in his Jan. 10, radio show called on Americans to contact their senators about section 220 of S. 1 which he said constitutes “a grave threat” to freedom of speech.
“Democrats and a few Republicans are trying very, very quickly to insulate themselves from the public — and to do it by muzzling people like us,” Dobson said on his Focus on the Family radio broadcast.
S. 1, a lobbying-reform bill, is the first to come to a vote in the new Democrat-controlled Congress. One of its many provisions would require grassroots groups to report directly to the secretary of the Senate and clerk of the House any time they spend money to communicate to their constituents on public-policy issues that are before Congress.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said Section 220 would subject such groups to miles of red tape and greatly increase their costs — difficulties that could critically hamper their ability to rally constituents to contact their elected officials.
Dr. Dobson said the bill was prompted by senators and congressmen who didn't like the impact grassroots groups have had in leading millions of Americans to contact their elected officials.
“Clearly, the objective here is to hide what goes on from the public — and to punish and silence those of us who would talk about what the Congress is doing,” Dr. Dobson said.
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of issue analysis for Focus on the Family Action, said not every group would come under the provision.
“It does not affect labor unions, corporations, 527 groups, Hollywood-elite types…,” she said. “It affects folks who, on a regular basis, communicate with the grassroots and pass along information.”
Gary Bauer, president of American Values, said on the Wednesday broadcast that ‘money talks’ in the nation’s capital. “Some kind of lobbying reform really is needed,” he said,” just not one that’s aimed at ordinary people.”
The “red tape” would include in depth quarterly reports from organizations like Dobson’s Focus on the Family, Perkins’ Family Research Council, and Bauer’s American Family Values. Ironically, the bill would include liberal organizations as well.
Penalty for failure to complete and submit quarterly reports is $100,000, a sum which would cripple or bankrupt many small grassroots organizations.
However, so great was the response to Dobson’s show on Wednesday that by Friday morning an amendment had been drafted and introduced to strike section 220. Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, introduced an amendment to strike the provision according to his communications director, Emily Christensen. And an aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he is a co-sponsor of the amendment. That’s significant because not only is McConnell now minority leader in the Senate, but he’s also one of the Republican co-sponsors of S. 1.
According to Dobson tens of thousands of phone calls, faxes and emails were placed to the U.S. Senate in opposition to section 220 specifically. The office staff of one senator said, “We were slammed with phone calls regarding this issue.”
On Friday Dobson said at the beginning of his radio show this response to the news of S. 1 and section 220 in particular is just the kind of grassroots contact with elected officials section 220 is designed to stifle.
S. 1 is scheduled to come before the senate for a vote Wednesday, January 17. I encourage you, if you were not one of those who called earlier this week, to call Sen. John Cornyn, 202-224-2934 and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, 202-224-5922 and insist they vote for the amendment to strike section 220 of S. 1.
More information concerning S. 1 can be found at www.citizenlink.org. You may read S. 1 in its entirety on the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov .
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Editor’s Note: Information and quotes for this column were obtained from James Dobson’s Web site, www.citizenlink.org