Isn’t this special? It seems our Rights of Free Speech, Assembly and Privacy are under attack in the form of “Lobby Reform.”
From Lobby Sense:
A coalition of more than fifty grassroots and public policy organizations today announced the launch of a new citizen advocacy project, LobbySense, and released a detailed Statement of Principles that opposes any Congressional legislation that according to the group, “stifles citizen speech.”
The broad-based coalition also announced the appointments of Kerri Houston, vice president of policy for Frontiers of Freedom, as LobbySense national spokesperson; and, Jason Wright, president of the Institute for Liberty, as executive director.
“In the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff lobby scandal,” said Kerri Houston, “members of Congress reacted swiftly to public concerns and drafted legislation they deem ‘lobby reform.’ But while we applaud their willingness to engage, we oppose any legislation that overreaches and unnecessarily diminishes the rights of the many for misguided public image purposes.”
According to LobbySense, some proposed regulations aim far afield of their presumptive targets – corporate lobbyists and Congress itself – and have raised the ire of grassroots organizations and think tanks now caught in a web of expansive new restrictions despite any complicity in the current scandal. LobbySense maintains that state-based and national organizations object to new restrictions on member organizations that advocate for changes in public policy based on ideological values.
“Our coalition recognizes that intrusive and unnecessary restrictions in Senate bill 2128 proposed by Senator McCain (R-AZ) and S. 2180 sponsored by Senators Reid (D-NV) and Obama (D-IL) will have a chilling affect on the ability of ordinary citizens on all sides the political spectrum to have their voices heard by their Members of Congress,” stated Houston.
“Effective reform should include more transparency in reporting lobby-related activity, restraint on the spending at the heart of corruption, and strengthening of current criminal statutes,” continued Jason Wright. “The result of anti-grassroots provisions in these bills would be to strip concerned citizens of their right to organize and for members to maintain their current right to privacy. Yet, the American citizen and grassroots groups targeted by these ‘reforms’ had no role in the Abramoff scandal.”
“It is, in effect, arresting the neighbors instead of the burglar,” Houston concludes.
Wright noted that the Statement is signed by organizations from Maine to Illinois and Alaska to Connecticut, as well as national entities. It reads, in part “From the birth of the American experience, citizen expression has been the heart of political discourse,” and concludes that “some senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee … chaired by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), continue to assert that free speech restraints on American citizens are a necessary part of lobby reform.”
Senate bill 2128 was proposed by Senator McCain (R-AZ) and S. 2180 sponsored by Senators Reid (D-NV) and Obama (D-IL), what an alliance huh?
I have gotten to the point that I cannot trust anything McCain is involved with, and those of you that would even consider voting for him better catch on. The McCain-Feingold Caimpaign finance reform also muzzled free speech and now he is slipping it into a bill on lobby reform. I have come to the conclusion that McCain is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He doesn’t want political free speech. He doesn’t really want to hear from you. After all, they know how to run the country better than “we the people” right?
It is time to contact your elected cockroaches again!
Senate
Filed under: News
