[EM] House Sets Campaign Finance Vote

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

D-A report from political reality land. 

NOT being discussed ----- the minority rule math of the U.S.A. Congress and 
the Electoral College.
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House Sets Campaign Finance Vote

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republican leaders agreed Tuesday to allow a vote 
next week on the most significant changes in campaign spending law in a 
quarter-century. 

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said the House will devote next Tuesday 
and Wednesday to the legislation that would limit campaign spending and 
advertising and require more disclosure of campaign contributors. 

He said he had made the decision after consulting with House Majority Leader 
Dick Armey, R-Texas, and the Democratic leader, Dick Gephardt of Missouri. 
``I expect there will be a vigorous debate on this issue that will reflect 
well on the House of Representatives,'' Hastert said. 

``At long last, campaign finance reform will be considered in the House,'' 
said Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., partners in 
sponsoring the leading campaign spending bill. ``The timing is favorable as 
the unfolding Enron scandal underscores the need for reform.'' 

The Shays-Meehan bill is backed by most Democrats and a minority of 
Republicans, but is opposed by GOP leaders and many in the Republican ranks, 
who see it as an unconstitutional abridgment of free speech rights. 

President Bush is against a central goal of the Shays-Meehan bill, to ban the 
flow of unregulated soft money to the national parties, but has made clear to 
Republicans that they cannot count on him vetoing the legislation if it gets 
to his desk. 

The Shays-Meehan bill would ban the soft money donations that corporations, 
unions and wealthy individuals now make to federal political parties. It also 
would bar unions, corporations and some independent groups from broadcasting 
certain types of political advertising within 60 days of an election or 30 
days of a primary. 

Soft money donations to the parties have exploded from $86 million in the 
1992 presidential election to $500 million in 2000, but repeated efforts to 
change campaign finance law have died in Congress in recent years. 

Last year the Senate, which moved back into Democratic control, passed 
similar legislation offered by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, 
D-Wis. Efforts to push Shays-Meehan through the House last July collapsed 
after a procedural dispute, and GOP leaders have resisted giving supporters 
of the bill another chance. 

To revive their bill, Shays and Meehan resorted to a little-used procedure 
called a discharge petition, whereby signatures from 218 House members, a 
majority of the body, can force leaders to bring a bill to a vote. 

Supporters of the bill last month achieved that goal, with the last few 
signatures secured in the wake of revelations that Enron, the collapsed 
energy giant, had made large donations to lawmakers from both parties. 

Feingold, in a statement, said the Enron case ``has created a climate that I 
believe will make it very difficult for members to vote against reform.'' 

``We asked for a fair vote and we are going to get one. Bring it on,'' said 
Scott Harshbarger, president of the advocacy group Common Cause. 

Under rules for the debate, opponents of Shays-Meehan are allowed to offer an 
alternative which is expected to be legislation sponsored last year by Rep. 
Bob Ney, R-Ohio, that does not ban soft money but requires more disclosure of 
political donations. The opposition can also offer amendments that 
Shays-Meehan supporters will try to defeat. 

The bill's supporters hope for the House to pass a bill that is almost 
identical to that approved by the Senate, to avoid a House-Senate conference 
that could result in the legislation getting stalled or changed.