[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11012-S11013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, we are preparing to cast a vote on a 
cloture motion in another 10 minutes or so, and I thought it would be 
useful to take the floor of the Senate and describe not only for our 
colleagues but for those who watch the proceedings of this body what 
exactly is happening.
  We are nearing the end of a legislative session. We expect from what 
the leaders have indicated that the Senate will continue for perhaps 
another 2\1/2\ weeks at the most. We have on the floor of the Senate a 
piece of legislation that we should consider and we should pass. It is 
called the ISTEA or the highway reauthorization bill. It is a very 
important piece of legislation.
  Just prior to having this legislation on the floor of the Senate, we 
had a piece of legislation called campaign finance reform. That is a 
piece of legislation we should pass as well. It is interesting that 
both pieces of legislation were brought to the floor and tied up with 
ropes procedurally so that no one could do anything with either piece 
of legislation.
  Why? One underlying reason: Because there are some in this Chamber 
who do not want to allow an up-or-down vote on campaign finance reform. 
They want to crow about campaign finance reform and how much they 
support it. They want to go out and talk about their desire to have 
campaign finance reform, but they don't want to allow this Chamber an 
opportunity to vote on campaign finance reform.
  The fact is the American people know better. The American people know 
this system is broken and ought to be fixed. They know we need campaign 
finance reform, and they know that the votes exist in the Senate to 
pass a campaign finance reform bill. In fact, we have demonstrated on 
procedural votes there are at least 52, 54, perhaps 55 Senators who 
will vote for campaign finance reform. But can we get to the vote? No. 
Why? Because procedurally those who control this Senate have tied ropes 
around both campaign finance reform and now the highway bill in a 
manner designed to prevent having an uncomfortable vote on campaign 
finance reform.

  When I talk about using ropes, I am talking about procedures called 
``filling the tree.'' It is probably a foreign language to people who 
don't know what happens in the Senate, but it is a rarely used 
approach, filling the tree, which means establishing through 
parliamentary devices a series of amendments, first degree and second 
degree, that offset each other sufficient so when you are finished 
filling the tree, no one can move and no one can do anything.
  The highway reauthorization, which is on the floor now, was brought 
to the floor and the tree was filled immediately. As I said, it is a 
rarely used device and almost always used to prevent something from 
passing.
  Mr. TORRICELLI. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DORGAN. I am happy to yield to the Senator.
  Mr. TORRICELLI. I think the Senator from North Dakota makes an 
important point to the Senate, and that is that many of the American 
people are asking why, with all that we now know about campaign finance 
abuse and with the continued erosion of confidence in our electoral 
system, why a majority of this Senate is not prepared to vote for 
campaign finance reform.
  The simple truth is, a majority of the U.S. Senate would vote today 
for campaign finance reform, for the most meaningful change in how 
money is raised and spent and we govern our elections in a generation. 
But a majority of this Senate is being prohibited from casting votes 
for this fundamental change, first by the Republican leadership, which 
is so intent on preventing a vote of the McCain-Feingold bill that it 
will filibuster, and second,

[[Page S11013]]

as the Senator from North Dakota has pointed out, by prohibiting 
procedurally the offering of any amendments to other legislation that 
will allow us to make campaign finance reform part of other legislation 
enacted on this Senate floor.
  It is cynical. It is a deliberate, partisan tactic to keep an 
advantage in the financing of campaigns in this country. The cost is 
enormous. The cost is enormous, not simply in delaying other 
legislation, in stopping the work of this Congress, but in continuing 
and even fueling the erosion of confidence in the American people in 
the ability of this Senate to solve a real and legitimate problem.
  Mr. DORGAN. The Senator from New Jersey is absolutely correct.
  The Senator from Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, who is on the floor, 
has, along with the Senator from Arizona, Senator McCain, brought to us 
a bipartisan proposal to say, ``Let's fix this issue. Let's do 
something meaningful about campaign finance reform.''
  Every day you look in the paper and there is something new, some new 
revelation about what has happened in campaign finances, and it is not 
good. It has been Democrats a good number of times, and I understand 
that, and I am uncomfortable with that. Today it happens to be 
Republicans in the Washington Post--$1 million-plus passed from big 
donors to other groups, then out to campaigns. So what you have is big 
money being moved into campaigns with an inability to trace any portion 
of the funds. Yesterday, the same thing, in a little race going on up 
in New York. Right now, $800,000 put into that race in issue 
advertising which is unfortunately, under today's system, a legal form 
of cheating.
  I think it would be in the best interest of the American people that 
we brought to the floor of the U.S. Senate an opportunity to vote yes 
or no, up or down, on campaign finance reform and stop the silly dance 
going on.
  Mr. TORRICELLI. If the Senator would yield--and I am interested in 
hearing Senator Feingold on this issue--I think it is important that 
the American people now understand this is not a choice between a 
current campaign finance system in the country being governed under 
existing statutes or an alternative offered by Mr. McCain and Mr. 
Feingold. The simple fact is there is no governing law of American 
political campaigns today.
  The legal system, which for more than 20 years has governed the 
financing of our campaign system, has collapsed. Corporate money is 
flowing into this system. Independent organizations are beginning to 
dominate the system. Even the political parties risk becoming side 
voices in a larger chorus. The system in this country of governing our 
campaigns has ended. The only issue is whether this Senate is now going 
to allow the majority to govern by passing a new system which will 
install some new integrity into our system of government. That is, 
indeed, the issue.
  Mr. DORGAN. One of the reasons we are told they don't want to have a 
vote on this is because money is speech, they say. If that is the case, 
there are a lot of folks in this country who are voiceless in American 
politics.
  There is too much money ricocheting off the walls in politics. We 
need to do something about it. Campaign finance reform of the type 
offered by Senator Feingold and Senator McCain is a step in the right 
direction. All we need to do is be allowed to have a vote on campaign 
finance reform.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, on that point, let me agree strongly 
with the Senator from New Jersey and the Senator from North Dakota and 
highlight what will happen in a couple of minutes.
  We will have a cloture vote that is purportedly on the issue of 
highway spending, but it is not about highway spending. It is not about 
transportation. It is not about investing in infrastructure. Those 
votes will come later. The vote we are going to have in a few minutes 
is about whether the first session of the 105th Congress is going to 
adjourn for the year without one single substantive vote on the issue 
of campaign finance reform and all the scandals that we have seen here 
in Washington. That is what is going on here. That is exactly what the 
American people have to be told in a straightforward manner.
  The discussion that we just had here indicated what really happened a 
couple of weeks ago on the campaign finance reform bill. We thought we 
were going to have a serious debate on that issue. We thought there was 
going to be an opportunity not only to debate the overall bill but to 
offer Senators what Senators come here to do--the opportunity to offer 
amendments and modifications.
  I was ready for that debate. These Senators were ready for that 
debate. The Senator from Arizona was ready for that debate. Even the 
junior Senator from Kentucky, the leading opponent of campaign finance 
reform, said he was ready for that debate.
  Well, we were wrong, Mr. President. We never had such a debate. We 
never had such amendments voted on. We had a sham, a con game played on 
the American people. We had a process that was purposely rigged so that 
one way or the other the Republicans and Democrats would have to 
filibuster, or better yet, if possible, make both of them filibuster.
  So my point is this: Let's have that debate. Let's have serious, 
substantive votes on this issue. Let's let Senators amend and modify 
and give their good ideas to the bill and then let the chips fall where 
they may.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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