Campaign Finance Reform—Really

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) introduces a First Amendment Restoration Act to repeal certain parts of 1971's Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)--if I'm reading the bill correctly, Bartlett wants to kill disclosure requirements, restrictions on labor union and corporate contributions, and treating "coordinated" spending as official legal contributions to the campaign.

A Cybercast News Service report seems to refer to some completely different bill from Bartlett under the same name, unless Thomas.loc.gov hasn't been updated quickly enough. The one CNS talks about amends McCain-Feingold, not FECA, and is said to deal with the 60 day/30 day limits on electioneering speech from advocacy groups. But, as you can see by checking the first link, the Bartlett bill by that name on Thomas.loc.gov seems to be a different matter entirely.

Comments

[Doc]

If only we could get a "Truth in bill naming" bill through Congress...

[dhex]

think of the loopholes! maybe they can rename loopholes "escape hatches."

[NoStar]

What is so wrong with having no limits with full disclosure?

[R C Dean]

What is so wrong with having no limits with full disclosure?

Makes it too easy to raise money to unseat an incumbent.

[Stevo Darkly]

"1971's Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)"

I don't know that it's particularly bad, but "FECA" is a pretty good name for a law. Too bad they couldn't stick an "L" on the end there.

[Jadagul]

"Act of Law"? "Act of the Legislature"?

How about "Act of Lunacy"?

[Evan Williams]

Yay, let's celebrate the possible destruction of one chink in the leviathan's acres of armor.

I'll repeat my sentiment from yesterday: in any sane world, Campaign Finance Reform and the prescription drug giveaway would be enough to start another revolution. But these days, people care more about their fuckin iPod playlist than they do the Bill of Rights.

[Curtis]

A couple things:

First, I usually use GovTrack.us to find legislation. It gets updated a lot quicker than Thomas.LOC.gov, and it has other useful information/services, like money trails and RSS feeds to watch specific bills. Just thought you might be interested.

The bill referred to is H.R. 46, but there are several other bills affecting campaign funding, including H.R. 338, which also attempts to amend FECA to require more disclosure, as well as another bill by Bartlett, H.R. 45, which would prohibit public funds from being used for political conventions.