Late on January 18th, the U.S. Senate passed an ethics reform bill (Senate Bill 1) to ban gifts to Senators bought by lobbyists, and to place other restrictions on how Senators interact with lobbyists. 

Shortly before the final vote on that bill, the Senate passed Amendment 20 to remove the entire Section 220 from the bill (the so-called "grassroots lobbying" provision).  That 55-43 vote preserved the free speech rights of any person or group that provides information to members, email lists, or bloggers when such information motivates them to contact their representatives in Congress about issues under debate.  Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama both voted against removing these onerous restrictions on free speech from Senate Bill 1.

Fortunately, every Republican present voted for Amendment 20 along with seven Democrats, but 43 Democrats are now officially on record.  These 43 Senators want to put every conservative voice in the nation out of business if they have any role in providing information to voters about the issues Congress is debating.  Sadly, both Senators from Illinois are ready and willing to remove conservative voices from the debate.

Is the First Amendment now so disrespected that 43 U.S. Senators are willing to trample on the right of citizens to petition the government for a redress of grievances?  Unfortunately, it must be so!  Is that surprising?  Eliminating the inconvenience of dissenting voices is apparently no big deal for these Senators after they have voted consistently to preserve the “right” to abort babies for any inconvenience, as most if not all of these Senators have done.

Section 220 would have established onerous reporting requirements with deadlines that were impossible to achieve unless one could predict the future.   Failure to meet these reporting requirements could result in fines of $200,000 per infraction.  Punishment could also include up to 10 years in prison.  Anyone who is paid by any organization that encourages more than 500 people to contact Congress on any matter or anyone who has called a Congressional office more than two times urging a vote on legislation would have been required to register as a lobbyist and comply with these complex and costly reporting requirements to avoid violating the law.

Thanks to the efforts of grassroots lobbying that would have been impossible if this provision was law, Amendment 20 sponsored by Utah Senator Robert Bennett passed 55-43 to end this threat to free speech for now.  This provision was so onerous that even the liberal American Civil Liberties Union sided with conservative groups in opposition to it.