“Silence the Citizen Act of 2007”, S.1, Section 220

The Liberal Left and their RINO friends have wasted no time in the new 110th Congress to bring up for vote in the U.S. Senate a bill, S.1 or Senate Bill 1, to address much needed lobby reform. However, one of the sections, Section 220 would handcuff or even silence the information that the average citizen receives from grassroots organizations. This section in essence makes it what Tony Perkins of the Family Research Center calls the “Silence the Citizen Act of 2007”.

KILLING THE GRASSROOTS

Richard Viguerie said in a recent email about this insidious provision (Section 220) of the bill, “… the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even BLOGGERS, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Stree lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever…”

VOTE FOR AMENDMENT 20 TO S.1

“…Senator (David) Vitter (R-LA)…is now a co-sponsor of Amendment 20 by Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) to remove Secton 220 from the bill. Unless Amendment 20 succeeds, the Senate will have criminalized the exercise of First Amendment rights. We’d be living under totalitarianism, not democracy.”

CRIMINALIZING EXERCISING FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

American Family Association comments “The grassroots lobbying section of U.S. Senate Bill 1 (Section 220) contains onerous reporting requirements (on a quarterly basis), and civil fines of up to $100,000 for failing to comply. .Basically these new rules were written to isolate pro-family and conservative Christian organizations. Large corporations (which spend millions in lobbying expenses) would be exempt. Communications aimed at an organization’s members, employees, officers, or shareholders” would be exempt. That means that groups such as the AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, National Education Association and other organized groups would be exempt.”

TAKE ACTION TODAY

(1) Sign GrassrootsFreedom.com’s petition or the Focus on the Family petition

(2) Email or call both of your Senators at (202) 224-2315 and ask them to vote yes for Amendment 20 on this bill, otherwise to vote no if it it is not amended. They could vote on this bill tomorrow, Thursday, January 18th.

I did both. Please make A Good Choice and do the same.