House Judiciary Committee kills controversial "lobbying reform" amendment

House Judiciary Committee kills controversial "lobbying reform" amendment

A pro-family organization is praising members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted to kill a proposed amendment aimed at regulating grassroots organizations. The Meehan Amendment would have required groups like the American Family Association to be treated like lobbying groups and be subject to all kinds of regulations by the government.

Buddy Smith is the Assistant to the Chairman of the American Family Association. He says the Meehan amendment would have made it difficult for groups to communicate with their supporters about bills moving in Congress. If passed, the amendment would have established federal regulatory authority over efforts aimed at motiving citizens to communicate with their representatives about congressional legislation.

Under this amendment, the government "would require all types of onerous reporting mechanisms, which would really muzzle our ability to get the word out in a timely fashion," Smith observes. But considering the composition of the Judiciary Committee, he says, it is amazing the amendment went down.

"It has some of the most liberal Democrats on the committee," the AFA spokesman contends. And on the Republican side," he says, "I see some of what we would call RINOs over there, some 'Republicans in name only.' So it is really amazing that the outcry was so strong that this bill went down in committee."

The amendment was so bad, even organizations from the left opposed it, Smith asserts. "The purpose of this bill was to muzzle groups like AFA," he says, "and -- believe it or not -- the bill was just such an outrage that we find ourselves for the first time in a long time joining hands with the [American Civil Liberties Union] in opposition to this. It was just so outrageous, even the ACLU came out against it."

The American Family Association is praising members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted to kill the Meehan amendment, a measure the pro-family organization says could have silenced grassroots groups like AFA by restricting their communications with their supporters.