HOUSE COVID-19 BILL MAY THREATEN FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Disturbing analysis from the Institute for Free Speech. The bill reads: “[a]ny corporation that receives Federal aid related to COVID-19 shall, until the date on which all such Federal aid is repaid by the corporation to the Federal Government… not carry out any Federal lobbying activities.” Unless the 1400-page bill has some exception in it somewhere else, this would include not just widget-makers but advocacy groups (disclosure: potentially including my employer, FIRE) that might end up receiving some kind of unemployment, payroll, etc. subsidies, unconstitutionally preventing them from contacting legislators at all.