The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would restrict the First Amendment rights of grass-roots organizations to disseminate information to the public.
The bill, Senate Bill 1, was originally intended to help fight corruption of major corporations. Section 220, tucked quietly into the bill, however, allows it to accomplish the opposite. If passed, SB 1 would effectively shut down small grass-roots organizations.
At the same time, lobbyists for large corporations, for whom the bill was originally intended, would not be affected.
According to the Free-Market News Network, the proposed new grassroots regulation bill would greatly harm citizens’ groups, while “exempting the big fat cat organizations and corporate interests.”
“Little grassroots organization would, under the grassroots regulation bill, be required to register and report quarterly to Congress under the lobbying disclosure law, identifying who they are, how much they spent, which members of Congress their efforts were directed to, and other information,” FMNN said. “Under the corporate exemption in the grassroots regulation bill, corporations will be allowed to spend unlimited money communicating to their shareholders, employees and officers, and they still won’t have to report to the government…but small grassroots groups would have to report all of their activity for doing far less.”
Katie Norman, press secretary for Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, said although Dole is pleased the Senate is addressing the issue of ethics reform, she has serious objections to Section 220 and is opposed to the grass-roots restrictions.
“[Sen. Dole] believes that those provisions unconstitutionally restrict citizens’ First Amendment right to speak freely and to petition the government,” Norman said. “And, although Section 220 would do absolutely nothing to prevent public corruption—since it would regulate communications between an organization and the American public, not communications between an organization and government officials—it would place a considerable and unnecessary burden on citizens’ ability to form grassroots groups.”
Dole intends to vote for the amendment offered by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, to strike Section 220 from the bill, Norman said.
Among the groups that would be adversely affected by the restrictions on sending out information are American Family Association and Focus on the Family. Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of American Family Association, said the bill was designed to silence groups having pro-family values.
“The new Democratic Senate thinks that if it can keep you from getting information—which is what Senate Bill 1 (Section 220) would do—then it will not be getting e-mails and phone calls from you. Senators favoring this bill are simply tired of hearing from you,” he said. “That is the bottom line. They don’t want to hear from you. They don’t want you to be informed. They want to silence you. How? By simply keeping you from receiving information that AFA provides.”
Karen Welsh is a contributing editor for Carolina Journal.