Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
Public Citizen Congress Watch
Campaign Finance Reform: Shays-Meehan Rule.
This vote was on a rule governing how the House would proceed with debate on a campaign finance reform bill (H.R. 2356) sponsored by Reps. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) and Marty Meehan (D-Mass.). (H.R. 2356 is the House companion to the Senate McCain-Feingold-Cochran bill.) The rule (H.Res. 188) for consideration of the bill, would have broken up the bill into 14 parts, each requiring a separate vote. By this procedural maneuver, House Republican leaders sought multiple votes in the hope that if at least even one part could be defeated, it could drive away enough of the bill’s supporters to ensure the entire bill’s defeat. Reform leaders advocated defeating the rule. Defeated.American Conservative Union
Campaign Finance.
Procedural vote on whether the campaign finance bill would have to be considered in one complete package, good and bad together, or whether improvements could be proposed to, or inappropriate or unconstitutional sections stricken from, specific parts of the bill. A procedure allowing for separate treatment of individual parts of the bill procedure was defeated, but it delayed consideration of the bill.Americans for Democratic Action
HR 2356. Campaign Finance Reform.
Adoption of the rule to allow the House to consider a ban on “soft money” donations to national political parties. This rule was crafted by campaign finance reform foes to disallow amendments which fine-tune the bill and, thus, keep reform advocates from gathering more votes in support of final passage. Beyond banning soft money, the original reform legislation would allow up to $10,000 in soft-money donations to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the vote activity. The reform bill would prevent issue ads from targeting specific candidates within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary. Additionally, the legislation would maintain the current individual contribution limit of $1,000 per election for House candidates but raise it to $2,000 for Senate candidates, both of which would be indexed for inflation. Rejected.League of Private Property Voters
Campaign Finance Overhaul – Rule.
Political Speech Restrictions -
Shays, R-Ct. and Meehan, D-Mass. - would
require nearly all grassroots activist
organizations to register with federal agencies,
restrict political speech, and adds severe new
penalties for violations. Vote was on rules for
debate that would have allowed extensive
amendments to this terrible legislation.
Rejected.International Union, UAW
House Rejects Attempt to Block Campaign Finance Reform.
After the Senate had approved the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, House GOP leaders put forward a sham alternative that would have actually increased the amounts that wealthy individuals may give to federal candidates, while still preserving the soft money loophole in federal campaign law. At the same time, the GOP leaders tried to establish rules for the debate over the competing campaign finance reform measures that would have hamstrung the advocates of real reform. This cynical tactic proved to be too much for many Representatives to swallow, and the House rejected this unfair process. The GOP leaders then indefinitely postponed action on the campaign finance reform legislation.