The Lobbyist Public

Target date for passage of Lobbying "Reform" in the House: Memorial Day

There are three areas of disagreement in drafting the legislation:

1. Regulating grass-roots lobbying.
2. Reporting bundling of political contributions.
3. Revolving-door rules.

Regarding grassroots lobbying:

Democrats have been pushing to require disclosure from grass-roots groups that encourage voters to call Congress about issues, but conservative groups and congressional Republicans have fought the effort, saying it would infringe on citizens’ right to petition their government.

Lobbyists and Democratic aides involved in drafting the bill say the grass-roots provision is likely to end up in the House legislation but may not survive a conference with the Senate, which stripped such regulations out of the bill (S 1) that passed in that chamber Jan. 18.

CWA Alert:

Representative Marty Meehan (D-Massachusetts) has introduced H.R. 2093, a re-hashed version of Section 220 of Senate Bill 1 (S. 1) with subtle language changes.

As you know, the Senate - by a vote of 55-43 - removed this section from the bill in January 2007 because the provision unconstitutionally restricts constituents' ability to communicate with their Members of Congress.

While the Meehan bill is different from the Senate version, it still suffers from the inherent problem of regulating speech, and it sweeps much more broadly than necessary.

Contacting one's representative on matters of public policy is an indicator of a healthy democracy. H.R. 2093, however, defines such conduct as "lobbying" and seeks to regulate it.

Placing reporting requirements on efforts to communicate with the general public undermines the basic premise of our system of government. The rights of the grassroots, who are "citizen-critics of government," are highly prized and protected under the First Amendment for all citizens.