Coverage has been hard to come by today on the passing of the DISCLOSE Act, with the exception of WND.COM and Fox News. Older reports were carried on Hot Air, and Politico. Where the Act was briefly mentioned, it was only to gloat that its passing dealt a defeat to Republicans. Credit goes to the HuffPo for this report.
The official, twisted title: “H.R.5175 – DISCLOSE Act: Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections.”
[Amends] the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit foreign influence in Federal elections, to prohibit government contractors from making expenditures with respect to such elections, and to establish additional disclosure requirements with respect to spending in such elections, and for other purposes.
As our reader rightly points out, Mark Levin ATTEMPTS to explains how the Disclose Act threatens the First Amendment, but he and his guest fumble hopelessly.
UPDATE (June 26): Contra Levin, the Campaign for Liberty gets it. This from their newsletter:
“Earlier today, the House of Representatives shredded the First Amendment by voting 219-206 to pass H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE Act.
As hard as it is to believe, they made the bill (which should really be called the Establishment Protection Act) even worse in the hours leading up to the vote by including more provisions to benefit their Big Labor pals and to obtain further details on those opposed to their powergrabs.
Thanks to the actions of Campaign for Liberty members and other freedom-minded activists across the country, the vote on H.R. 5175 came down to the wire and was much closer than expected. Your pressure reminded them that we are serious about holding our elected officials accountable for their actions.
Matter of fact, your calls made such an impact that Campaign for Liberty was even mentioned on the House floor during the debate!
This vote is by no means the end of the fight, and the battle to protect Americans’ right to free speech and to keep the federal government from gathering even more information about us now moves on to the Senate, where the bill faces many challenges.
There are several steps you can take to ensure the Establishment Protection Act is decisively defeated in the Senate.
First, contact your senators right away and make sure they know we have not given up on this critical issue. Click here to find their contact information and urge them to oppose H.R. 5175 and all other attempts to curb free speech.
Next, call the NRA headquarters at 1-800-672-3888 and their Legislative Action group at 1-800-392-8683 and tell them to drop their compromise and actively oppose H.R. 5175.
Without their special deal with House leaders, DISCLOSE may have been stopped in its tracks before ever reaching the House floor in the first place.
Finally, please forward this email to your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers so we can spread the message about the threat posed by the Establishment Protection Act.
Campaign for Liberty has enjoyed more success than the statists ever imagined possible, and they would love nothing more than to shut us down by going after our donors.
Let’s show them that the Freedom movement will never back down.”