House rejects political-blog bill

WASHINGTON — Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign-finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.

The House voted 225-182 on a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mail messages and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). 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.

Opposition to the bill was led by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who championed the 2002 campaign-finance law that banned unlimited "soft-money" contributions that corporations, unions and individuals were making to political parties. Meehan said the bill would be "a major unraveling of the law."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said the government should encourage, not fetter, a phenomenon that was bringing more Americans into the political process.