Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
Public Citizen Congress Watch
Campaign Finance Reform: Table Non-severability Amendment.
This vote was to table (kill) the so-called “non-severability” amendment to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (S. 27). Under Sen. Frist’s (R-Tenn.) amendment, if certain provisions of the bill – no matter how incidental – were ever found to be unconstitutional in court, then all other provisions, including the crucial ban on soft money, would also immediately become null and void. Attaching a non-severability amendment to a bill is extremely rare.
Tabled.American Conservative Union
Campaign Finance Overhaul-Non-Severability.
Dodd (D-CT) motion to kill the Frist (R-TN) amendment that would provide that if one of several specific provisions in the underlying bill, mainly the ban on soft money, disclosure requirements for issue-group advertising, and hard money limits, is found to be an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment, then the other provisions specified would also be invalid. The Dodd motion violated an understanding under which the entire bill came to the floor of the Senate. Unfortunately, Dodd's position prevailed.