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Feb 9, 2007 -- Legal Center Weekly Report: February 9, 2007
Reform groups sent a letter this week to House Members urging them to support lobbying reform legislation requiring lobbyists to disclose the contributions they ''bundle'' for members of Congress and other recipients.
The reform groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.
The letter states, ''Our organizations strongly urge you to support as part of this legislation an essential provision to require lobbyists to disclose the contributions they collect or arrange for federal officeholders and candidates, leadership PACs and party committees.''
The Campaign Legal Center joined Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG in a letter sent to Ethics Taskforce Chairman Michael Capuano (D-MA) urging him to support of an Office of Public Integrity.
The organizations believe it is essential to establish a professional, nonpartisan enforcement entity to help enforce the House ethics rules. The groups stressed that such an enforcement entity is the lynchpin for all other ethics reforms adopted in this Congress. The letter summarizes the elements that the groups believe are essential to establishing an effective and publicly credible ethics enforcement entity.
The Campaign Legal Center has expressed support for the Responsible Campaign Communications Act of 2007, introduced earlier this week. The Legislation would extend the "Stand by Your Ad" provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) to Internet ads and "robo-calls" paid for by candidates and political committees.
Campaign Legal Center Policy Director, Meredith McGehee, stated , "The "Stand by Your Ad" provision is a common sense means to better hold candidates and parties accountable for their actions to influence, and in some cases mislead, voters."
The "Stand by Your Ad" provision of BCRA, which applies to ads run on television and radio, was specifically upheld by the Supreme Court in its landmark decision McConnell v. FEC. The bill is crafted to be consistent with rules governing the Internet recently issued by the FEC. As the power of the Internet as a fundraising and campaigning tool grows, it is essential that candidates claim the same responsibility for their advertisements over the Internet as they do for ads over the airwaves.
Presidential Public Funding System
Also this week, reform groups sent a letter to House members urging them to co-sponsor H.R. 776, legislation to fix the presidential public financing system. According to the letter , "we face a presidential election in 2008 where the two major party nominees are expected to reject public financing and to spend a combined $1 billion in private campaign contributions for their primary and general election races."
The letter continues, "The influence-seeking big money donors of the 1972 Watergate-era presidential race will be influence-seeking big money bundlers in the 2008 presidential election."
While H.R 776 will not take effect until 2009, reflecting practical realities, enacting the legislation in this Congress is critical to protecting the integrity of the presidency and our democracy for post-2008 presidential elections.
Legal Center and Benton Foundation Seek FCC Answers
at Oversight Hearing
Members of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet are being urged to demand answers from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the lack of digital public interest obligations more than a decade after the process began. The letter , along with a timeline of FCC activity, from the Campaign Legal Center and the Benton Foundation was hand delivered to Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA) as he received the 2007 Susan G. Hadden Pioneer Award for his pioneering efforts on behalf of consumer access.
The full Subcommittee received similar letters that included a timeline of the FCC's foot-dragging on digital public interest obligations dating back to 1995. All five FCC Commissioners are slated to appear before the Subcommittee in an oversight hearing scheduled for next week.
Legal Center Blog Highlights
Each week, the Campaign Legal Center staff posts blog entries on its site, www.clcblog.org . Click to read this week's entry: " Bundlers Rising " and " They Walk Like Ducks, Quack Like Ducks, But Claim They're Not Ducks " or to sign up for blog updates, click here .
To read a variety of this week's editorials and articles on a variety of Campaign Legal Center issues, please click here . |
