Senators Pledge to Force Vote on Finance Reform

WASHINGTON —  Backed by President Clinton, a bipartisan group of campaign finance reform advocates in the Senate vowed Wednesday to disrupt legislative business if necessary to force a debate and vote on the issue by the end of September.

“The time has come for Congress to step up to the plate and enact meaningful reform,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

A member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Collins said Republicans and Democrats alike “should be embarrassed” by the revelations coming out of its hearings on widespread campaign improprieties.

A second committee member, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said it seems pointless to wait any longer to act.

“We don’t need more evidence to prove this crime--and the current state of our campaign finance system is a crime,” he said. “What is already unlawful of course must be prosecuted. But too much of what is lawful should be unlawful.”

Collins and Levin addressed the Senate after Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), co-authors of a stalled campaign finance reform measure, issued their disruption threat. A fifth senator, Max Cleland (D-Ga.), joined the orchestrated show of resolve, which signaled an escalation in the effort by reformers to be taken seriously.

“We’re not willing to let the United States Senate duck this issue,” Collins said.

But to date, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has refused to put the matter on the Senate schedule despite McCain’s almost daily attempts to persuade him to do so.

“He hasn’t said no, but he hasn’t said yes,” McCain said. “The time to act on this matter is rapidly expiring.”

Feingold added, “We’re just saying: This sort of ‘maybe’ approach has to end.”

The disruptive ploy he and McCain have in mind is to offer their bill--or portions of it--as an amendment to unrelated legislation.

“This is not an approach we relish. But we realize that we may have no other choice,” McCain said. “The public has a right to have this issue debated.”

Clinton, who had declared a July 4 deadline for congressional action on campaign finance reform, issued a statement Wednesday “strongly” supporting the efforts of McCain and Feingold to press the issue.

“September will be the time for members of the Senate to stand up and be counted for reform,” Clinton said. “I will do what I can to see to it that 1997 is finally the year that it is achieved.”

In the House, there is a similar bipartisan plan afoot to disrupt business in the lower chamber unless GOP leaders there agree to let the matter come to the floor.

The proposal by McCain and Feingold would ban “soft money,” the term for unregulated contributions to the political parties, limit contributions by political action committees, tighten curbs on how much wealthy candidates can contribute to their own campaigns and provide reduced broadcast rates for candidates who voluntarily agree to spending limits.

Their proposal has 33 sponsors. But it takes 60 votes to end a Senate filibuster, which is a time-honored tactic of killing a bill that reform opponents are considered certain to invoke.