In a blogger conference call today with Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Fred Wertheimer with Democracy 21, and Meredith McGehee with the Campaign Legal Center, Wertheimer confirmed that the NRA rules Congress with the statement that struck David Dayen, too: "The NRA has veto power in the House of Representatives."
Wertheimer and McGehee are holding their noses and supporting the bill, because the "information that citizens stand to lose if it doesn't pass" justifies passing the bill, and in McGehee's words, "the NRA exemption is not the loophole that swallows the law." Van Hollen made clear that the exemption for the NRA (and any other group that meets the criteria of the exemption--more than 1 million members, have been in existence for more than 10 years, have members in all 50 states and raise 15 percent or less of their funds from corporations, which could also include the AARP, the Humane Society and possibly one or two other organizations) is relatively narrow. Political advertising by the NRA will still require identification on ads that they are presented by the NRA--the NRA CEO will still have to appear and endorse the ad. What they won't have to do that every other organziation will have to do is disclose their primary donors.
Dayen has a good summary of Van Hollen's explanation for the exemption.
Van Hollen justified the exemption this way: he said that Rep. Heath Shuler originally offered an amendment which would have carved out all c(4) organizations. These are usually the form that shell groups run by corporate entities (“Americans for America”) take when running ads. “We worked with our members to limit dramatically the scope of that amendment,” Van Hollen said. He added that groups like the NRA aren’t trying to fool the voter about who they are – indeed, they brag about it. Van Hollen said that ultimately, the exempted groups would still be more constrained than they would be without the bill, because they cannot spend corporate money they get on campaign communications (though money is fungible), and not violate the limits for exemption qualification.
They're trying to get at the corporate-funded astro-turf groups who've organized c(4)s as cover for their political efforts. Wertheimer also addressed the issue of labor, reiterating Van Hollen's aggressive assertions that there will be no labor carve-outs in the bill (Ezra's thought experiment thus made completely moot). Wertheimer said it was "by design" that labor would not be excluded from any exemption to fight the perception that the bill would "tilt toward labor." You see, labor is toxic politically, the NRA is not, at least not in Congress. The opposition to the NRA exemption is growing [pdf].
The House could take up the legislation as early as tomorrow. I asked whether there was a commitment from the Senate to act on the bill before August recess, when it would have to be completed in order to be effective for the November election. Wertheimer said that he had received assurances from Reid that it would get a vote in June, and that the primary sponsor in the Senate, Schumer, would use his leadership position to get that vote.
Adam Bonin wrote about the Internet implications discussed in the phone call earlier.