« Friday Festival Of Blog Bits | Main | Al Jazeera's Outreach To Bloggers »
March 10, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
House Panel OKs Online Speech Exemption
The House Administration Committee today approved a bill calling for the exemption of certain online communications from rules for reporting campaign finance activity.
National Journal's Technology Daily reports that the bill, H.R. 1606, was approved by voice vote. Last November, the full House failed to garner the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the bill under expedited procedures. That 225-182 vote kicked the legislation back to committee.
Also on Thursday, two key bloggers who have been fighting for the bill, Mike Krempasky of RedState and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, sent a letter to all members of Congress, urging them to pass the measure.
I recently recapped the story of the fight to protect online political speech. You can find plenty of relevant links in that recap.
UPDATE: Tim Chapman live-blogged yesterday's committee debate at Townhall.com's Capitol Report.
And at his VOLPAC blog this morning, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., explained why he has proposed companion language to H.R. 1606 as an amendment to a bill to overhaul lobbying regulations. Here are some excerpts:
From the earliest days of our republic, freedom of speech and freedom of the press -- be they anonymous pamphlets, celebrated essays or local newspapers -- were understood to be fundamental to the practice and defense of liberty. Without the ability to convey ideas, debate, dispute, and persuade, we may never have fought for and achieved our independence. ... And, today, it's bloggers whom we now have to protect. There are some who, out of fear or shortsightedness, wish to restrict the ability of our modern day-Thomas Paines to express political views on the World Wide Web. ... I stand firmly against these efforts to hamstring the Internet and squarely with the champions of free speech.
Posted by | 12:15 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://amcblog.nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/532
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference House Panel OKs Online Speech Exemption:
» Another Victory that Shouldn't be Won from Hold The Mayo
If you think that congress passing legislation giving bloggers special free speech exemptions is a good thing, then you have accepted that their regulation of speech is right in the first place [Read More]
Tracked on March 9, 2006 10:19 PM
» McCain-Feingold v. Bloggers from Indiana Barrister
In September 2004 Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the Federal Election Commission's (FEC) exemption of internet activity from the McCain-Feingold legislation was contrary to congressional intent, forcing the FEC to amend its rules. Federal law ... [Read More]
Tracked on March 14, 2006 12:56 AM
