All-But-Doomed Overhaul Bill Meets Its Expected End
By Jeffrey L. Katz, CQ Staff Writer
(CQ, April 4) -- In what may have been the year's last gasp for comprehensive campaign
finance legislation, the House on March 30 overwhelmingly defeated a measure
(HR3581) that had elements disdained by both parties.
House Republican leaders had all but guaranteed the outcome by insisting
that the legislation be considered under special rules that severely limited
debate, prohibited amendments and required a two-thirds vote for passage
-- usually an impossible hurdle for all but the most non-controversial
legislation.
Even the GOP leadership abandoned the final product, which had been
approved in a preliminary form (as HR3485) by the House Oversight Committee
two weeks earlier. The vote was 74-337, with no Democrats and only about
one-third of Republicans voting for it.
But the bill's fate seemed less important to the GOP hierarchy than
having prevented a bipartisan group from bringing its own broad rewrite
of campaign finance legislation (HR3526) to the floor. That leadership
strategy provoked complaints from Republicans who have pushed for the bipartisan
legislation and anger from Democrats.
There were frequent protests from Democrats that Speaker Newt Gingrich,
R-Ga., had reneged on his pledge to conduct a fair and open debate on the
issue. "This is a process the Politburo under Joseph Stalin would have
been proud of," said Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat
on the Oversight Committee.
The House approved two small bills that would expand public disclosure
of campaign contributions (HR3582) and ban campaign contributions from
non-citizens (HR34).
The outlook for these bills is murky, however. It may be impossible
for the Senate to consider either of them without getting bogged down in
the sort of broader dispute over campaign finance that tied the Senate
in knots over the issue in October and again in February.
The Senate all but doomed prospects for enacting a major campaign finance
bill this year through filibusters led by Senate GOP leaders twice in the
last six months. The efforts blocked consideration of a bipartisan overhaul
bill (S25) sponsored by John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell D. Feingold,
D-Wis.
It was apparently out of fear that the House could pass a companion
measure to McCain-Feingold -- a bill (HR3526) sponsored by Christopher
Shays, R-Conn., and Martin T. Meehan, D-Mass. -- that GOP leaders moved
to ensure it could not be brought up.
Anger Over the Process
Democrats repeatedly called the process a "sham" and a "fraud." Meehan
quoted Woody Allen in the movie "Bananas," in referring to the process
as "a travesty of a mockery of a sham."
Some Republicans also expressed frustration that the House would not
be considering HR3526.
Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., said the process "reflects the dark side of
this institution, and both sides of the aisle have contributed to this
darkness." He said it "sent a message to the American people that we are
afraid of reform, and that we will undermine it at any price."
Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said he was "ashamed to see how this is coming
up tonight, that it is in the same manner as that of the leadership who
ran the House for 40 years under the Democrats. It is wrong."
Oversight Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., offered few apologies
for the GOP strategy. He said that if Democrats were so interested in campaign
finance legislation, they could have enacted a bill without Republican
support when Democrats controlled both chambers and the White House.
"Guess what happened?" Thomas asked. "Nothing. Nothing went to the
president."
Thomas' bill, HR3581, would require unions to get prior written permission
from members before using their dues for political purposes. It would create
experimental programs in five states to verify the citizenship of potential
voters. And it would triple the amount of money individuals could contribute
to federal candidates and political parties.
In addition, the measure would regulate political advertisements by
third-party groups in the final three months before an election. And it
would ban national political parties from receiving soft money -- the unlimited,
largely unregulated contributions that are intended for party-building
activities.
The House also considered three other campaign finance bills offered
by Thomas that were based on the broader legislation.
-
It passed HR34, to prohibit non-citizens from contributing to federal campaigns.
The vote was 369-43.
-
It passed HR3582, to strengthen reporting requirements for campaign
contributions
and expand the type of information that must be reported. The vote was
405-6.
-
The House rejected another bill, HR2608, to prohibit labor unions or
corporations
from making campaign contributions on behalf of union members or stockholders
without their approval. The vote was 166-246.
Afterward, Democrats said they would turn their attention to advancing
a discharge petition to force House action on comprehensive campaign finance
legislation. To do so would require signatures from 218 members, and proponents
were still 22 members short. Only seven Republicans had signed the petition
as of April 1.
© 1998 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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