Dear Member of Congress:
On behalf of the 362,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I urge you to oppose H.R. 2093 and any attempts to include similar grassroots lobbying regulations in a forthcoming lobbying reform bill. Whether the target for regulation is grassroots organizations like NTU or the firms we rely on to help carry out our mission, we believe these new rules could have a dangerous and devastating impact on the citizen activists who help hold Washington accountable to the American people.
In our role as an advisor to those who seek to mobilize their neighbors by creating state and local taxpayer organizations, we know that one of the worst hindrances to start-up groups is the incorporation and tax forms that must be filed to legally operate. Piling on lobbying reporting regulations would only add to the paperwork burden that serves to stifle the genuine participation in the democratic process. This, combined with serious First Amendment concerns, spurred NTU to become an active member of the coalition that helped to remove onerous language from the Senate's lobbying reform bill that would have added additional reporting requirements for grassroots groups.
In order to diffuse the strong opposition to these regulations, some have suggested targeting the vendors hired by grassroots groups to help mobilize the public to contact Congress. We oppose attempts to regulate the firms that provide the products and services that national, state, and local groups depend on for assistance with message dissemination. Forcing these businesses to shoulder the regulatory burden will only make operating more expensive for groups when the cost of reporting is passed along in the form of higher prices. This is the exact same line of reasoning we use when we oppose corporate tax hikes: higher business costs imposed by the government mean higher costs for consumers. "Reformers" like to rail against the sums of money involved in politics, but by requiring vendors to file burdensome reports you'll be responsible for increasing the amount of donor funds needed to mount an effective advocacy campaign. Clearly, the best route is to avoid these issues altogether by stopping attempts to further regulate grassroots lobbying.
While the final shape of the expected lobbying reform bill is unknown to us at this point, you will undoubtedly hear from many of our concerned colleagues about the constitutional and practical arguments against H.R. 2093 and its presence in other legislation. I add my own voice to that chorus by asking you to keep new reporting requirements off the backs of grassroots groups and their service providers during consideration of the lobbying reform bill.
Sincerely,
Kristina Rasmussen
Senior Government Affairs Manager