Pelosi’s H.R. 4682 Will Kill Freedom of Speech

Mark Tapscott: Pelosi preparing new shackles for free speech; The Examiner; Dec 19, 2006, 3:00 AM.

The Examiner has a commentary detailing a new bill created by “[i]ncoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi …cooked up with Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook a “lobbying reform” that actually protects rich special interests and activists millionaires while clamping new shackles on citizens’ First Amendment rights to petition Congress and speak their minds. Pelosi tried earlier this year to move H.R. 4682, the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006,” which is now cited by Public Citizen’s Web site as the vehicle it is helping the incoming speaker to craft for the new Congress. The proposal Claybrook is helping craft for introduction early in 2007 is expected to be essentially the same bill Pelosi put forth this year.

That is bad news for the First Amendment and for preserving the kind of healthy, open debate that is essential to holding politicians, bureaucrats and special interests to account for their conduct of the public business.

The key provision of the 2006 bill was its redefinition of grassroots lobbying to include small citizens groups whose messages about Congress and public policy issues are directed toward the general public, according to attorneys for the Free Speech Coalition.

All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well).

In addition, the 2006 bill created a new statutory category of First Amendment activity to be regulated by Congress. Known as “grassroots lobbying firms,” these groups would be required to register with Congress and be subject to penalties whenever they are paid $50,000 or more to communicate with the general public during any three-month period.

In other words, for the first time in American history, potentially millions of concerned citizens involved in grassroots lobbying and representing viewpoints from across the entire political spectrum would have to register with Congress in order to exercise their First Amendment rights.

There is even more bad news here, though, because the Pelosi-Claybrook proposal includes loopholes big enough to protect Big Labor, Big Corporations and Big Nonprofits, as well as guys with Big Wallets like George Soros. Big Government, you see, always takes care of its big friends.

The Pelosi-Claybrook proposal builds on the restrictions on free speech created by campaign finance reform measures like McCain-Feingold that bar criticism of congressional incumbents for 30 days prior to a primary and 60 days before a general election.”

Read the rest of the commentary here.

Comment: There is no doubt that pro-life and 2^nd Amendment groups are the primary target. Each of these issue groups works primarily through grassroots organizations and do not have the luxury of big donor support. They also pose the biggest threat to socialism.

Don’t expect any negative response from the folks on the left. They are so consumed with their march toward full socialism that they fail to see the very transgressions meant to remove freedom. Yet the very issues they clamor about daily concerning the President, the war, and his administration could actually come to realization under this Democrat Congress.

What the American left, specifically, those outside the beltway, fail to realize is that it does not matter what party you belong to, Washington insiders only care about their power, and they will remove any freedom you or I may have to reach this end. And I recognize this includes Republicans as well.

2007 has to be a new year of renewed freedom and dialog. Washington is going to do nothing to foster freedom, so the only way freedom can grow is for Americans of all parties and ideologies to look at the deeper and long term consequences of bills like H.R. 4682 and fight the encroachments. And the emphasis has to be incumbent upon Democrats and Republicans. These are the two groups that routinely sit back as the big central government socialist politicians take away our freedoms and do nothing. It’s time these two groups stepped up and defended freedom, or you can bet there will be little left in the next decade.