Chuck Grassley: “I would like to speak to this. This legislation was passed in 1938. You heard me say in my opening remarks that for a…”

“I would like to speak to this. This legislation was passed in 1938. You heard me say in my opening remarks that for a long period of time--until about, I think, less than 8 years ago, when we started bringing attention to this legislation not being enforced by the Department of Justice--probably only about a dozen people or less were convicted under this legislation. I heard what my colleague from Kentucky said about this legislation. I think you could read his remarks to indicate that a violation of freedom of speech is--we might as well repeal the lobbying act or lobbying registration act--whatever the law is--of 1946 that lobbyists have to register if they are going to lobby the Congress of the United States. It doesn't have anything to do with freedom of speech. What it has to do with is transparency, so we know who is spending money to influence the laws in this country. That has nothing to do with freedom of speech. You can say anything you want to. It is just about transparency and accountability that comes with transparency. I think it is very important. I don't find a lot of fault with what Senator Rand has said about regulatory criminalization and too much federalization, but this is a law that has been on the books since 1938 and, really, hasn't been enforced until very recently here. I think when you enforce the law, you get respect for the law.…”