As expected, more backroom deals cut with powerful, well-organized interest groups are emerging from the shadows in advance of a House Committee on Rules hearing this afternoon meant to add to the legislation passed out of the Committee on Administration all of the favors for politically connected and powerful interest groups (i.e. sort out amendments to the bill).
After suffering a near-revolt from members of their own Caucus and the furious response of left-leaning interest groups over the special exemption granted the NRA from the most onerous and burdensome requirements of the DISCLOSE Act, the bill sponsors have apparently decided that 501(c)4 groups with 500,000 dues paying members aren’t quite as shadowy and fly-by-nighty as previously thought. From Roll Call ($):
The new standard lowers the membership requirement for outside groups from 1 million members to 500,000. Those groups would still need to have members in 50 states, have existed for 10 years and can accept no more than 15 percent of their funding from corporate or union sources…
It was not immediately clear which groups would qualify under the new carve-out, though the Sierra Club, with 750,000 members, appears likely to meet the standard.
In addition to granting this special exemption for the Sierra Club, there may be a few additional groups that qualify. But I’m going to guess that most of the groups that signed this letter put together by Nan Aaron at the Alliance for Justice are not going to be relieved of the burdens the DISCLOSE Act will place on their free speech.
Details aren’t yet available on another deal that’s been reported, this one a favor to organized labor. Another Roll Call article reports:
…some major labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, remained on the fence pending negotiations with leaders about remaining concerns with the bill. Leaders agreed to tweak the package to remove a provision labor groups complained would slap an excise tax on some of their political spending, but a union source said they were still in talks on other items.
I’m sure in the next few hours we’ll see more special deals made behind closed doors with powerful interest groups rolled out in the Rules Committee hearing. All in the name of disclosure and transparency, of course!
