The attack on activist groups has been declared

The FEC (Federal Election Committee) is considering a sweeping rule change that would shut down or impede activist organizations. There have been public statements by the Republicans about certain organizations manuevering around the McCain-Feingold Act, by sponsoring advertisements revealing the facts behind President Bush's policies. While the bulk of the Republican attack has been against the legality of the actions of what are called "527s," the FEC rules are aiming much broader. People for the American Way are concerned that the proposed changes could effect the free speech of all non-profits.

According to PFAW's analysis:

The proposed rules would transform overnight many nonprofit groups (including charities, civic organizations, religious groups, labor unions, and fraternal organizations) into federally regulated political committees – faced with draconian restrictions on how they raise and spend money – for merely expressing an opinion about a federal officeholder’s policies or views. The potential chilling effect on free speech cannot be overstated. Many nonprofits would be forced to choose between ceasing normal operations or facing crippling restrictions on fund raising.

The rule changes would essentially prohib all political speech, or what might be interpretted as political speech, by a wide range of organizations - "Another proposed rule would expand the definition of a federally regulated “expenditure” to include communications that “promote, support, attack, or oppose” a federal candidate or policy position of a candidate."

We do have a brief opportunity to give input to the FEC on this issue. Bush GreenWatch gives the following information for providing input - NOTE that the comment period ends APRIL 9:

TAKE ACTION! Send a comment opposing the rule change to the FEC. Comments should be addressed to Ms. Mai T. Dinh, Acting Assistant General Counsel, and must include the full name, electronic mail address, and postal service address of the commenter. The comments period ends on April 9: politicalcommitteestatus@fec.gov.

Posted by rowan at April 7, 2004 7:03 PM | TrackBack | [eMail this article!] |