This morning staunch House conservative and Republican Study Committee Chairman, Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) spoke at the American Spectator's Newsmaker Breakfast hosted by ATR.

Hensarling has sponsored a bill that recently popped up on my radar screen - the Blogger Protection Act of 2008. I asked the Congressman what he thought was the likelihood of the bill’s passage and what prompted him to introduce the legislation.

Hensarling stated he was under no illusions about the bill’s chances for passage, particularly with his name attached to it. But he noted,

First you win the debate, then you win the vote.

As for why he introduced the bill, Hensarling explained,

I have grave concerns about the FEC, and the precedents being set by it.

He continued, in the past few years, they’ve ended up in places we wanted them to end up at, but they’ve retained the rights to a lot of troubling precedents.

Hensarling finished his response, saying:

We’ll fight today and hopefully win tomorrow.

Here's more on the bill from Hensarling's office:

Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations that protected bloggers from being hampered by certain campaign finance laws. Under these regulations, bloggers cannot be considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate simply because they link to campaign websites or write about the positions of federal candidates. Additionally, blogs are treated as any other publication under the general media exemption from most campaign finance restrictions. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law.

But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute. As you may know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there’s no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Furthermore, the FEC is currently defunct because of vacancies and a lack of quorum. Therefore, we shouldn’t put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

You can read the actual text of the bill here.