Sometime during the next few weeks, the U.S. House is expected to vote on controversial legislation to roll back many of the most crucial laws governing the financing of the country's congressional and presidential elections.
The legislation, H.R. 1316, sponsored by Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Albert Wynn (D-Md.), not only would repeal key provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), enacted two years ago and commonly known as the McCain-Feingold law, but also roll back landmark campaign finance reforms put into law more than three decades ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Under the bill, federal officeholders once again would be free to solicit big donors to give six- and seven-figure campaign contributions - exactly the type of campaign donations that have the potential to corrupt politicians and convince citizens that our system of elections and government is rigged against their interests by wealthy elites who play by different rules.
Ironically, pressure for passing H.R. 1316 is coming from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) - two congressional leaders who themselves are embroiled in ethics and special interest money scandals.
The Ney substitute, which now will come to the House floor, is the ultimate "Show-Me-The-Money Bill" - once again swinging wide open the floodgates for wealthy special interest contributors to swamp election campaigns with their money.
Ney's measure keeps in place all provisions of the original Pence-Wynn bill but adds several provisions to increase further the influence of big donors.
Overall, passage of the bill would allow a wealthy donor to contribute about $3 million in regulated "hard money" at a single joint fundraising event, which could then be distributed by a grateful president, officeholder or party leader to eligible candidates and party committees. This $3 million check could be distributed in the following way:
- Nearly $2 million could be distributed to all federal candidates of one party in a single election cycle. An individual may contribute $2,100 per candidate in both the primary and general elections. All 435 House seats and one-third of Senate seats are up each election cycle.
- $160,200 could be distributed among the three national committees of a political party, and another $1 million to all the state committees of the same party ($20,000 to each of the 50 state parties), in a single election cycle.
To find out more about the Ney-Pence-Wynn Bill and its implications for campaign finance law, a good place to start is Public Citizen's page on the bill:
http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/legislation/pence_wynn/
Those who voted against H.R. 2356, the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, back in the 107th Congress are
probably going to vote for this bill (if they're still in office, that is). To see the vote chart, check here:
vote chart