March 1, 2007—The following is the opening statement of Ranking Member Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) during today’s hearing on S. 1, the Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007:

The introduction of this bill was preceded by high-profile ethics probes into actions by prominent government officials, most notably in the Abramoff scandal. The public, and many of us here, called for decisive action to clean up Beltway politics and to curb the misdeeds of unscrupulous officials and lobbyists. This should be the objective of this bill.

However, I am extremely disappointed to learn, through all 3 prepared statements of the Democrats’ witnesses’, that there is indeed a movement afoot to revive the blatantly unconstitutional grassroots lobbying provisions that were wisely stripped from the Senate version of this bill because they had no connection with Washington’s ethical problems.  

Grassroots lobbying was defined in the original bill as “the voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to federal officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same.”  Just reading those words describing what speech could be criminalized under such provisions should chill the spine of anyone who supports a strong First Amendment. 

Grassroots lobbying is the VERY LIFEBLOOD of a healthy democratic government. 

Grassroots lobbyists are, perhaps, a preacher in Kansas who encourages his congregation to voice their values; or a young activist blogger in Manhattan who encourages her readers to take action to support the saving of the people in Darfur; or a nonprofit in Scottsdale that encourages letter writing campaigns to pressure for improved child health care, and I could go on. 

What would the grassroots lobbying provision do to such people?  It would require them to register with the government and report completely and thoroughly each qualified communication that was made in their efforts.  Failure to capture each piece of data required by the government could result in 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines! That’s 10 years in prison; Hundreds of thousands in fines.  For exercising free speech in America.

Mr. Chairman, the Supreme Court has made clear that such efforts to regulate political activity beyond direct contact with Members of Congress is in – quote -- “serious constitutional doubt.”[1]  In Rumely v. United States, the Supreme Court noted:

“It is said that indirect lobbying by the pressure of public opinion on the Congress is an evil and a danger.  That is not an evil; it is a good, the healthy essence of the democratic process …”

Grassroots lobbying is largely responsible for the very formation of this country.  Grassroots lobbying through the publishing of The Federalist Papers, the famous essays written by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, is largely responsible for the ratification of our Constitution. And grassroots lobbying is protected by each and every guarantee of that Constitution’s First Amendment:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

But for grassroots lobbying, there would be no American Revolution, No Abolition of Slavery, No Labor Movement, No Women’s Movement, and No Civil Rights Movement, because very few people would risk 10 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for failing to perfectly capture every qualified instance of free speech made to spur their cause. How would Dr. Martin Luther King have fared under such a law??

Subjecting to federal regulation the voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views cuts to the core of the freedom of speech that has made this country the most vibrant, creative, and free nation on Earth. 

Grassroots lobbying regulation is unconstitutional, Mr. Chairman. It does nothing to even address the real ethical scandals in government, and it has no place in this bill now or in the future.      

Congressman Franks is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on the Judiciary, and is Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee