House passes campaign bill with Democratic support, Republican opposition

House passes campaign bill backed by Democrats

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House has passed legislation placing new limitations on the political activity of outside interest groups, after first carving out exemptions aiding the National Rifle Association as well as labor unions and numerous federal contractors.

The vote was 219-206, along party lines.

Democrats say the measure will bring fuller disclosure to the world of campaign ads aired by shadowy groups. Republicans say it is an unconstitutional attack on free speech.

Passage sends the legislation to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid has pledged to seek its approval despite strong Republican opposition.

At the juncture of the First Amendment and partisan politics, the measure produced an unlikely alignment among the very groups it was intended to regulate.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four months before midterm elections, Democrats are intent on pushing through the House legislation that requires stricter disclosure requirements on political activity by interest groups.

Republicans oppose the bill, arguing the measure is unconstitutional and crafted to place corporations at a disadvantage. Even some Democrats balked in recent days at a last-minute change made to satisfy the National Rifle Association.

But Democratic aides expressed confidence the measure would have enough votes to pass when it comes to an expected vote Thursday.

The legislation was drafted in response to a Supreme Court ruling last winter that said corporations and unions were free to engage directly in political activity that had long been prohibited, including financing their own campaign commercials.

Under the measure, most independent groups, including corporations and unions, would be required to disclose the names of the top five donors whose contributions had made the commercials possible.

Companies and other groups holding government contracts in excess of $10 million would be banned entirely from engaging in independent political activity, as would companies that are benefiting from federal bailouts.

The legislation has created an odd alignment among interest groups. Among the most unusual developments was the NRA’s decision to step aside and agree to allow the measure to pass after first attacking it as an infringement on free speech, then winning an exemption from key disclosure requirements.

The concession came after Democrats aides concluded the legislation would fail if the powerful gun owners organization opposed it. But the exemption triggered a backlash by liberal lawmakers angered at the prospect of special treatment for a group that customarily works to defeat the Democratic legislation agenda.

The bill was changed again to say that any organization that has been in existence for at least a decade and has at least 500,000 dues-paying members spread among all 50 states would be exempt from having to disclose its donors.

The measure’s chief sponsor, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said it would “help ensure that the American people know who is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence their vote and prevent a takeover of our democracy by powerful special interests.”

Critics disputed that, noting that Van Hollen is also the head of the Democratic campaign effort in the House.

“This bill is nothing less and nothing more than an attempt to change the laws of campaign finance to silence the critics of one party in order to give it an advantage over the other,” Republicans on the House Administration Committee wrote after Democrats won approval in the panel on a party-line vote.