Your Voice Counts!

U.S. Senate votes 55-43 to delete ethics bill provision that would have muzzled grassroots lobbying of elected officials

Senator Coleman votes to protect free speech, Senator Klobuchar votes in favor of restricting citizen involvement in the political process

Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), today applauded a vote last night in the U.S. Senate to remove an ethics bill provision, which would have significantly restricted the ability of grassroots organizations to contact federal elected officials.

“I applaud the Senate’s vote to drop significant restrictions on the ability of members of the public to contact their elected officials.  I appreciate Senator Coleman’s vote on behalf of citizen involvement and deeply disappointed that Senator Klobuchar sided with efforts to muzzle free speech in her first month in office,” said Prichard.

Thursday evening, the Senate voted 55-43 to delete Section 220 from the Senate Ethics Bill SB 1.  The provision would have established draconian reporting and education requirements for citizens lobbying their Senators and Representatives.  It would have required citizens encouraging people to contact their representatives to file quarterly reports, detailing efforts to “stimulate grassroots lobbying”, salary paid, if any, whether they spent more than 20% of their time on lobbying, whether they've communicated to more than 500 persons, and whether they've communicated to a congressional office or executive branch more than once in a quarter.  Groups, which violate the provisions, could be subject to $200,000 fines per violation.

There was opposition to the provision from such disparate groups as Focus on the Family and The Family Research Council to the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

“We’re grateful for Senator Coleman’s support for free speech and are disappointed that one of Senator Klobuchar's first votes as a Senator was to protect efforts to muzzle the grassroots activities of Minnesotans,” concluded Prichard.

Take Action

Click Here to thank Senator Coleman

Click Here to express your disappointment with Senator Klobuchar

Click Here to make a donation to MFC/MFI

___________________________________________________

January 19, 2007
Please forward this e-mail to friends and neighbors
To unsubscribe from our e-mail alerts, please return this message with the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.
Note: Please allow up to two weeks for the changes to take effect

Minnesota Family Council, 2855 Anthony Lane S, Suite 150,Minneapolis, MN 55418
1-612-789-8811  www.mfc.org