House Wants to Silence Critics Before Election Day

The House of Representatives is planning to rush through legislation in the next two weeks that will significantly restrict the ability of trade associations and companies to engage in political advocacy. The bill H.R. 5175 is being labeled a disclosure bill in response to the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, but it is really focused on keeping government contractors, TARP recipients and companies with more than 20 percent foreign ownership out of the political process. In addition, it seeks to silence trade associations and businesses that plan to publicly announce that they are critical of legislation supported by candidates for federal office. Unlike past changes in campaign finance law (such as McCain Feingold) the Disclose Act is written to take effect immediately upon passage instead of waiting for the next election cycle and for regulations to be written and it treats labor unions differently than it does corporations. The legislation makes changes to the definitions in the Federal Election Law in a way that will have a chilling effect on issue advocacy that is in any way critical of members of Congress. The Senate is gearing up to consider identical legislation.