[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 16 (Thursday, February 26, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1036-S1037]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    VOLUNTARY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, as I mentioned earlier, we are going to 
have two votes at 11 o'clock on campaign finance. One will be on the 
so-called McCain-Feingold amendment, as amended by the Snowe amendment 
yesterday, and the other one will be on the underlying bill that is 
called the Paycheck Protection Act. That is my bill. Maybe I misnamed 
the bill. Maybe I should have called it voluntary campaign 
contributions. I am going to speak on that just for a moment.
  Mr. President, we are talking about campaign reform. I see there are 
charts on the floor--money is exploding, we need to ban soft money, we 
need to have more regulations of campaigns. I will tell my colleagues, 
I am willing to support campaign reforms, and maybe we can come up with 
different things we might be able to agree on, but I think a 
fundamental principle should be agreed upon at the outset, and that 
principle is this: No American should be compelled to contribute to a 
campaign against their will. No American. It is a fundamental 
principle.
  We want to encourage people to contribute to campaigns, we want to 
encourage people to participate in the election process, but no one 
should be compelled to give. No one should have money taken out of 
their paycheck every month--against their will--to fund candidates who 
they don't agree with or to fund a philosophy that they are opposed to. 
Unfortunately, that happens today, and it happens today to the tune of 
hundreds of millions of dollars.
  Some of my colleagues have irritated me and almost impugned the 
integrity of Senators--in violation of the rules of the Senate that, 
incidentally, go all the way back to Thomas Jefferson. They said the 
purpose of this bill is a killer bill because anybody who supports that 
bill wants to kill campaign reform.
  I am the author of that bill, and I take very strong exception to 
that statement. Granted, the New York Times said it, but the New York 
Times doesn't know this Senator. I am the author of that bill, and I 
sponsored this bill because a union member came to a town meeting in 
Owasso, OK, raised his hand and said, ``I don't like my money being 
taken from me every month and being used for political purposes of 
which I totally disagree. I want to have a voice, I want to have a 
vote, and if they ask me, I would say no.''
  I told that person at that town meeting that I was going to work to 
make sure that his campaign contributions would be voluntary, and that 
is the purpose of this bill. It was not designed to kill McCain-
Feingold. It was not designed to kill campaign reform.
  I have stated time and time again, I am willing to try and work out a 
decent campaign reform bill, but it must be premised on voluntary 
contributions. That is fundamental. It is a basic American freedom, no 
one should be compelled or coerced to contribute to a campaign against 
their will. No one.

  No one should be compelled to contribute to a campaign, period. It 
should be against the law. All we say in our bill is that all campaign 
contributions must be voluntary. Before money is taken out of a 
person's paycheck, he or she has to say yes. If they say no, it means 
no. After all, it is their money. It is not the union's money or 
somebody else's money; it is the individual's money.
  Unfortunately, that is the situation today for millions of Americans. 
We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. There is a 
movement growing out in the States, and there is going to be a vote on 
an initiative in California to protect workers paychecks and ensure all 
contributions are voluntary. It is also happening in many other States. 
It should happen all across the country. Frankly, we should do it on 
the Federal level, because we regulate Federal elections; we protect 
the freedoms of all Americans. This is supposed to be the body that 
protects the United States Constitution.
  How in the world did we even allow a system to start where someone 
can be compelled to contribute to a political campaign or cause against 
their will? That is wrong, we ought to fix it, and the way to fix it is 
to support the underlying bill.
  I say vote against the McCain-Feingold amendment. Why? Because 
McCain-Feingold did not say in addition to the underlying bill they 
want to add the following. It said strike the voluntary contribution 
language, strike that language, and replace it with McCain-Feingold. 
McCain-Feingold eliminates soft money. Soft money is at least done 
voluntarily. They want to end soft money contributions but they want to 
continue to have forced campaign contributions from union members.
  The language we drafted in this bill said it would be voluntary for 
employees of banks, it would be voluntary for employees of 
corporations, it would be voluntary for all employees--all employees. 
McCain-Feingold doesn't say, ``Well, we'll take that language and we'll 
add to it.'' No, it says strike that language. McCain-Feingold is the 
killer. It says, ``We don't want voluntary contributions but we will 
try and micromanage campaigns and what people can say in elections.''
  Some of those things in McCain-Feingold are pretty debatable on 
constitutional grounds. The Senator from Kentucky has done a good job 
in handling that debate. I want to say that all campaign contributions 
should be voluntary.
  This is not an anti-union member provision. There is nothing further 
from the truth. This is a proworker bill. This allows every single 
member of a union to say yes or no to campaign contributions. It gives 
them a voice. There are millions of union members who get up every day 
and work hard, pay their taxes and union dues, and are rewarded with a 
gag order over how those dues--their wages--are spent on politics. That 
is not right.
  If you go to a union hall and ask a bunch of union members, ``Hey, do 
you think you should have the choice to be able to say whether or not 
your money goes for campaign contributions or not?'' they will say, 
``Yes, I want that right.''
  Let's give them that right. That is not anti-union, it is prounion 
worker.
  Unfortunately, some people say, ``Oh, no, that's wrong; that's a 
killer bill; that is going to stop campaign reform.'' Why? Why is that 
a killer bill? Because organized labor bosses don't like it? Since when 
do they have a veto over this body? Since when do organized labor 
bosses say, ``Wait a minute, we don't think campaign contributions 
should be voluntary. So if you adopt the Nickles-Lott bill for paycheck 
protection--voluntary campaign contributions--we don't have a bill.'' 
Why? Because President Clinton says he will veto it? Why? Because a few 
leaders in organized labor don't like it? Why? Because organized labor 
bosses put in hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns for the 
Democratic Party? Do they have a blank check veto over this body, over 
this Congress? Why, I should hope not. I would hope that one group 
cannot just say, ``Well, we don't like that bill. Therefore, if you add 
to that bill, no deal.'' And that is basically what is happening.

[[Page S1037]]

  I strongly disagree with that position. I strongly believe that all 
Americans should have the right to contribute to campaigns; no one 
should be compelled against their will to contribute to political 
causes and campaigns.
  So, Mr. President, at 11 o'clock, we are going to vote on McCain-
Feingold, which is a substitute amendment, which strikes the underlying 
voluntary campaign contribution language. I hope that we will defeat 
McCain-Feingold. Then I hope that we will pass--regardless of what 
happens to McCain-Feingold, the underlying bill, the Paycheck 
Protection Act, the voluntary contributions act.
  I hope that my colleagues, regardless of what happens on McCain-
Feingold, will vote for voluntary campaign contributions for all 
Americans. That is what the second vote is about. I hope that we will 
vote for it and we can get cloture.
  I yield the floor.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. I yield myself such time as I require.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.

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