Violating the First Amendment

Congress is poised to strip our free speech rights-- again.

Amendments for SR. 1 and a separate bill in the House (H.R. 984) would significantly curb the rights of ordinary citizens to engage in lobbying. According to National Right to Life's Legislative Director, Douglas Johnson, "These restrictive proposals are being advanced under cover of innocuous-sounding labels such as ‘ethics reform’ and ‘lobbying reform,’ but they are really aimed at making policymakers less accountable to ordinary citizens and grassroots-based citizen groups. The groups pushing for these restrictions really want lawmakers and other government officials to be more responsive to pressure from certain elites, including fat-cat bosses of liberal foundations, the mainstream news media, and powerful congressional committee chairmen."

Democrats may seek "grassroots lobbying" limitations through amendments to SR.1 and through H.R. 984, the "Executive Branch Reform Act," require thousands of Executive Branch "officials to file quarterly reports listing every letter, e-mail, fax, and verbal communication that they receive from any 'private party' in which the communicator 'seeks to influence official action by any officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States.'" The term "private party" is defined in the bill as any person other than a government official or staff person.

Visit the National Right to Life website and go to the Legislative Action Center to learn more about the Waxman-Davis bill and the impact it could have on grassroots lobbying efforts: www.nrlc.org.