From one of the Family Research Council's regular e-mail updates:
...a new bill in the Senate could make it difficult for groups like ours to act on anything. In an effort to insulate themselves from the people--and further accountability--the liberal majority has threatened to pass a lobbying reform proposal, S.1, which would effectively silence grassroots organizations on policy issues. As we reported earlier this week, S.1 would require us to notify Congress about alerts, ads, and editorials, sometimes weeks in advance. Obviously that would make our efforts to inform the grassroots somewhat irrelevant, since we can rarely predict which issues Congress will debate weeks ahead of time--let alone how those debates will fare and what their ramifications will be.
Yesterday, on Focus on the Family's daily radio broadcast, I joined my good friends Dr. James Dobson and Rev. Don Wildmon and Gary Bauer, to discuss the chilling limitations this bill would impose on the grassroots. Thanks to listeners like you, who tuned in and contacted their elected leaders, we learned that the phones in the Senate office buildings were flooded with calls. One of the Senators you contacted, Bob Bennett (R-UT), took the objections to heart and introduced an amendment on the Senate floor striking the provision on "stimulating grassroots lobbying." We look forward to working with Sen. Bennett and others to protect your right to be informed and involved.
