{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=93D7759E-1A5F-4A36-A10A-88C09C001B8B", "Democrats\u2019 Plan to Receive Less Criticism: Target the First Amendment", "2022-09-21", "2022", "2022-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the DISCLOSE Act:\n\n\u201cFinally, with all these national crises hammering families, the Democratic majority is using the Senate schedule to demonstrate that they do not care.\n\n\u201cThe Democratic Leader is not spending floor time on a bill to combat Democrats\u2019 inflation crisis, or their immigration crisis, or their violent crime crisis, or their energy crisis.\n\n\u201cNot on legislation to help American families\u2019 daily lives in any way.\n\n\u201cInstead, the Democratic Leader is setting up a vote on a bill to erode the First Amendment and make political speech more difficult.\n\n\u201cInstead of trying to address the root causes of their unpopularity, Democrats are attacking the American people\u2019s ability to speak out against them.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats try to ram through political-takeover bills like this zombie \u2018DISCLOSE Act\u2019 once or twice every year.\n\n\u201cThis legislation would give Democrats\u2019 friends in the unelected bureaucracy even more power to police the political speech and activism of private citizens.\n\n\u201cRemember, donations to political action committees and electioneering nonprofits are already publicly disclosed. That\u2019s already law. What Democrats want is a huge new step that would reduce private citizens\u2019 privacy and chill Americans\u2019 constitutional rights.\n\n\u201cThe same Democrats who wouldn\u2019t condemn angry mobs gathering outside the private family homes of federal judges now believe that vastly more information about private citizens\u2019 political views should be made public.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s no mystery how those things fit together.\n\n\u201cEven the liberal ACLU warned years ago that what the Democrats want to pull off, quote, \u2018unconstitutionally infringes on freedom of speech and the right to associational privacy.\u2019\n\n\u201cInstead of addressing the reasons why Americans are upset with Democrats, Democrats are trying to legislate our citizens into sitting down and shutting up.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:29:59Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=93D7759E-1A5F-4A36-A10A-88C09C001B8B"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5363350976258516, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}