House Defeats Bill on Political Blogs
AP Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.
The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e- mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.
The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.
“The newest battlefield in the fight to protect the First Amendment is the Internet,” he said. “The Internet is the new town square, and campaign finance regulations are not appropriate there.”
Without his legislation, Hensarling said, “I fear that bloggers one day could be fined for improperly linking to a campaign Web site, or merely forwarding a candidate’s press release to an e-mail list.”
The bill is H.R. 1606.
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November 3, 2005 - 07:42 AM on November 3rd, 2005
the fact is the so called government of the so called USA Wants one thing “a tool to use against you if you get out of line”, it has nothing to do with freedom because we are not a free people but a controlled people for one world reasons, right now we can say anything we want to say but someday you will understand what control means:shock:
November 4, 2005 - 10:44 AM on November 4th, 2005
Great, so we start with a bad law which should be ruled unconstitutional and make it worse.:mad:
November 4, 2005 - 11:59 AM on November 4th, 2005
I agree with you Astro!