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WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Campaign reform heads to Senate President Bush suggested Wednesday that he may sign a campaign finance reform bill if it gets to his desk. NBC's David Gregory reports on the fierce debate in the House over the Shays-Meehan bill. By Tom Curry MSNBC Feb. 14 — Hours after the House passed a bill to overhaul the way political campaigns are financed, Senate supporters of the measure appeared to have enough votes Thursday to block a threatened filibuster and send the measure to President Bush for his signature or veto. SEN. FRITZ Hollings, D-S.C., who voted against a similar Senate bill last year, said he would supply the 60th vote needed to cut off Senate debate on the Shays-Meehan bill. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said as soon as the bill reaches the Senate, which could be after a one-week recess next week, he would seek unanimous consent to bring up the measure and pass it. Bush has not said if he will sign or veto the measure. Sponsored by Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass, the legislation would outlaw “soft money” contributions to national political parties and ban certain types of political advertising 60 days prior to an election. WashPost: Tactics, theatrics color vote The House passed the measure early Thursday after hours of debate and voting on 13 amendments. Despite the ban on “soft money” donations to national political parties, it would permit soft money contributions — up to $10,000 per donor per year — to any state or local party. Last April, the Senate approved its own version of campaign finance legislation, which is similar to the Shays-Meehan bill. But the Senate margin then was one less than the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged to filibuster the Shays-Meehan bill, essentially talking it to death. But Hollings’ Thursday morning announcement that he’d block a filibuster appears to pave the way for quick Senate approval of Shays-Meehan. Clift: Congress votes for real reform This would confront Bush with a hard decision — sign a bill most of whose provisions he opposes, or veto the bill and incur the wrath of supporters of tighter restriction on campaign spending. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was noncommittal about whether Bush would sign the legislation: “The president has made clear that he would like to sign something that will improve the system. He will have something declarative to say at the end of the process.” VETO CONSEQUENCES If Bush did veto the bill, it might give impetus to his rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to launch an independent presidential candidacy and jeopardize Bush’s chances of re-election in 2004. Last March, Bush issued a set of principles that he said he wanted to see embodied in any campaign legislation. They include: Banning corporate and labor union “soft money,” but not individuals’ “soft money” donations. Requiring labor unions to obtain prior authorization from dues-paying members before spending their money on political campaigns. Maintaining the right of advocacy groups to broadcast “issue” ads that mention a particular candidate. Non-severability, which means that if the courts struck down any portion of the bill, the entire measure would be invalid. If Bush sticks to these principles, then he’d find the Shays-Meehan bill unacceptable. In the final tally on the Shays-Meehan bill, 198 Democrats and 41 Republicans voted for it, while 176 Republicans and 12 Democrats voted against it. The House’s two independent members split on the bill. Six members didn’t vote. House roll call vote on campaign finance The bill’s foes tried offering amendments Wednesday night and into Thursday morning that, if adopted, would have made it unacceptable to the Shays-Meehan forces and difficult for the Senate to accept. But most of those amendments were rejected before final approval of the measure shortly before 3 a.m. ET. BUSH: WHY NOT NOW? Bush signaled his opposition Wednesday to a provision that would delay implementation of the bill until after this November’s elections, allowing both parties to continue to use unlimited “soft money” contributions from labor unions, corporations and individuals. Alterman: Is this reform? “I want to sign a bill that improves the system, and it seems like, to me, that if they get a bill out of the House of Representatives that improves the system it ought to be in effect immediately,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “But we’ll see what comes my way.” 'Hard money' vs. 'soft money' Defining two kinds of campaign contributions: 'Hard money': Donation to a specific candidate, limited to $1,000 per election by individual donors or $5,000 per election by a political action committee (PAC). 'Soft money': Donations to political parties ostensibly used for party-building and get-out-the-vote efforts, but often used to help specific candidates. There is no limit on 'soft money' donations, but they must be reported to the Federal Election Commission. DEBATE OVER AMENDMENTS The Shays-Meehan measure would also would ban advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club or the National Rifle Association from broadcasting any ads within 60 days of a general election if the ads mentioned the name of a candidate or showed a photo or likeness of a candidate. The ads that are the focus of the dispute discuss an issue such as pollution, but also mention a candidate. Instead of explicitly saying “vote against Bill Kelly,” the ads use language such as “Call Sen. Kelly and ask him why he voted to weaken the Clean Water Act.” Critics of the Shays-Meehan bill say the 60-day ad blackout period would violate the First Amendment rights of advocacy groups by making it impossible for them to get their message to voters. A guide to the campaign finance debate Even supporters of the Shays-Meehan bill, such as Sen. John Edwards, D- N.C., have said that its advertising ban poses “a very serious constitutional problem” on First Amendment grounds. The Shays-Meehan side offered two amendments to their bill, both of which passed. One would double to $2,000 the current “hard-money” contribution that individuals can make to House candidates, bringing it in line with the $2,000 limit in the bill that the Senate passed last year; the other would raise hard-money contribution limits for candidates facing millionaire opponents who finance their own campaigns. USING ENRON AS A SYMBOL Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, opened his attack on the Shays-Meehan bill by arguing that it failed to truly ban “soft money” because unions, corporations and individuals “could still contribute massive amounts of ‘soft money’ to state and local political parties. ... You can drive an Enron limousine — 60 million bucks worth — across the country through the loopholes in this bill.” Democrats also deployed the word “Enron” to bolster their contention that unlimited soft money contributions had a corrupting effect on American politics. Soft money totals for 2001-2002 election cycle | 1 | 2 Organization Total to Dems to Repubs American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees $1,265,000 $1,265,000 0 The union representing 1.3 million state and local government workers American Financial Group $1,100,000 0 $1,100,000 Financial services firm headed by veteran GOP donor Carl Lindner Service Employees International Union $1,079,166 $1,059,166 $20,000 The 1.4 million-member union representing nurses, janitors and other workers Communications Workers of America $1,065,000 $1,065,000 0 Union representing half a million telecommunications workers AT&T $1,034,349 $485,250 $549,099 Leading telecommunications firm with 160,000 employees | 1 | 2 Organization Total to Dems to Repubs International Game Technology $940,350 $100,000 $840,350 Nevada-based manufacturer of gambling machines Loral $932,500 $932,500 0 Satellite company headed by veteran Democratic donor Bernard Schwartz Philip Morris $839,567 $56,988 $782,579 Owner of America's leading cigarette maker Bristol-Myers Squibb $837,797 $50,000 $787,797 Leading pharmaceutical maker with $21 billion in annual sales Marriott $751,189 0 $751,189 Leading hotel chain Source: Center for Responsive Politics, based on Federal Elections Commission data as of 1/1/2002. Totals reflect contributions made by individuals associated with each company or union as well as official company or union contributions. Printable version “In public life, appearances are as important many times as reality. One five-letter word ought to crystallize the point for us: Enron,” declared Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “None of knows for certain whether that Texas energy company received any special treatment because of its enormous campaign contributions. ... But there’s no denying these facts: When Enron began to implode, it called officials at the highest levels of our national government and those calls did not go unanswered. And when the Bush administration began to draft its energy policy, it rolled out the red carpet for Enron’s participation.” Last October Enron officials and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now a top executive at Citigroup, one of Enron’s creditors, called Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Treasury Undersecretary Peter Fisher and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to seek their intervention to forestall Enron’s bankruptcy. O’Neill, Fisher and Greenspan rebuffed their pleas for help. Advertisement Officials of the now-bankrupt Enron were major contributors to Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and have also given campaign donations to many members of the House and Senate. Enron and its executives gave $1,138,990 in “soft money” contributions to the Republicans in the 1999-2000 campaign cycle and $532,565 in soft money to the Democrats. Enron’s “soft money” contributions accounted for about 0.4 percent of total Republican “soft money” in the 2000 campaign and about 0.2 percent of total Democratic “soft money.” How much can you give? Federal law imposes these limits on political contributions by individuals: • $1,000 for the primary election and $1,000 for the general election to each candidate for federal office. • $5,000 per year to a political action committee (PAC). • $20,000 per year to a national party committee. • No limit on "soft money" contributions for party-building and get-out-the-vote efforts, but the amount of donation must be disclosed to Federal Election Commission. • Corporations and labor unions are forbidden to donate directly to a candidate, but may form political action committees which can donate $5,000 per election to a candidate. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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