House Dems seek support for new disclosure rules on campaign ads amid flap over NRA exemption

House Dems try to rally allies on disclosure bill

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders sought support from organized labor and other traditional allies Wednesday for legislation requiring tougher disclosure on campaign advertising, hoping to overcome political fallout stirred by a blanket exemption for the National Rifle Association.

Unmoved, 45 civil rights, environmental, gun control and other groups wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing to oppose the legislation unless it is changed. As drafted, they said, it would establish a “two-tiered system of campaign finance laws and First Amendment protections, one for the most powerful and influential and another for everyone else.”

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the bill’s chief backer, met with members of the Democratic rank-and-file during the day, but given the unusual disagreement between Democrats and normally supportive interest groups, it was unclear whether the legislation would come to a vote later in the week in the House.

Under the bill, any nonprofit organization — businesses, unions or other independent groups — that runs political ads or conducts other political activity would have to disclose its top five donors. The measure also requires any individual or group paying for independent campaign activities to report any expenditure of at least $10,000 made more than 20 days before an election. Expenditures greater than $1,000 would have to be disclosed within 24 hours in the final 20 days of a campaign.

Over the weekend, House Democrats agreed to an exemption from the disclosure requirements for organizations that have been in existence for a decade, have at least 1 million dues-paying members and do not use any corporate or labor union money to finance their campaign-related expenditures.

The specifications were drawn with the NRA in mind, according to numerous officials, who said Democrats had concluded the bill would fail if the gun owners’ organization opposed it. Other groups meeting the same criteria also would be exempt, but Democrats have not named any.

Democrats designed the bill in reaction to a precedent-shattering Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that freed corporations and unions to spend their own funds on attempts to sway presidential or congressional elections.

Currently, independent groups are free to run often-critical television advertisements without disclosing the names of their donors. Supporters of the bill argue that businesses will soon do the same without the new disclosure requirements, but Republican opponents argue the measure is unconstitutional because it infringes on free speech rights.

In response to the changes related to the NRA, the AFL-CIO has also pressed for changes, according to several officials familiar with private negotiations, one of whom said labor wanted a carve-out similar to the one the gun owners’ organization secured over the weekend. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesman for the labor federation, Eddie Vale, declined to provide specifics. “We do have issues with the bill, and we’re discussing them with Congress and haven’t taken position yet on it,” he said.

A spokesman for the Sierra Club, David Willet, said the environmental group was seeking “a more democratic solution” than the bill would establish.

Among the organizations urging Pelosi to change the legislation were the Alliance for Justice, the League of Conservation Voters, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the United Church of Christ.

Gun control groups, in particular, clash frequently with the powerful NRA, which generally opposes legislation to limit the possession or use of firearms.