Senate Majority Leader to Push Shay’s Reform Bill to Senate Vote After Landmark Bill Passes the House
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14–Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-N.D.) said yesterday he will bring the campaign finance reform bill championed by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4th) to the Senate floor the minute he receives it from the House. Daschle spoke only hours after the House approved the controversial measure early yesterday morning.
“I was thrilled with the outcome of [the vote early yesterday morning],” Shays said later in the day. “I think the bill is something we can be proud of. We’re expecting no changes in the Senate. We will soon get a vote, and we expect it to pass overwhelmingly.”
The measure, co-sponsored by Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.), cleared the House by a vote of 240-189 at about 2:30 A.M., after 16 hours of sometimes fierce debate. The next step is for the House to send the bill to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate approved a largely identical bill last year.
The House bill survived challenges in the form of two substitute bills and 12 “poison pill” amendments that House Republican leaders offered in an attempt to derail the legislation.
Shays had defied House Republican leaders last month when he garnered enough signatures on a discharge petition to force the legislation to a vote. Supporters of the Shays-Meehan bill contended that the amendments were designed to “gut” the measure or shatter the coalition formed in support of the most sweeping campaign finance reform since 1974.
“As soon as the bill comes back to the Senate, I will ask unanimous consent to bring it up here and, under a time agreement, to pass it and put it on the president’s desk,” Daschle said, flanked by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.).
The Shays-Meehan bill would ban unregulated “soft money” that corporations, labor unions and individuals can now contribute to national political parties. It would also ban the use of soft money to finance “issue ads,” by special interest groups during the 60 days before a general election and 30 days before a primary. It would permit limited soft money contributions to state and local parties. The measure would also increase the hard money contributions to individual candidates from $1,000 to $2,000 per election.
During the marathon debate on campaign finance, Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-6th) voted for one of the substitute bills that would have effectively killed the Shays-Meehan measure but later said that she had cast that vote mistakenly and intended to vote against the substitute.
Rep. Jim Maloney (D-5th) who is running for the 5th District seat against Johnson in a race caused by the state’s redistricting plan and loss of a congressional seat, expressed skepticism. “Rep. Johnson’s statement that she made a ‘mistake’ doesn’t pass the smell test,” he said. “It’s just not credible.”
David L. Boomer, Johnson’s campaign manager, shot back that Johnson expected Maloney’s reaction since “he has a history of running very negative campaigns.”
A filibuster could threaten the future of the House bill in the Senate, which passed a similar measure sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) last year by 59-41. Proponents would need 60 votes to cut off a filibuster and send the bill directly to President Bush. Many believe that in the wake of the Enron scandals, this is the best chance in years to bring about significant changes in campaign spending rules.
Opponents of the bill complain that the measure violates the First Amendment right of free speech and weakens political parties.
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
