[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 9 (Thursday, February 7, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  Mr. TORRICELLI. Mr. President, it would appear that after more than a 
decade of discussions about campaign finance reform, the House of 
Representatives and the Senate may be nearer an accord on a historic 
change of how Federal elections are conducted in the United States. It 
is none too soon. Confidence in our political process has been 
undermined, the integrity of the Congress itself has been questioned, 
and the system is badly in need of repair.
  We are very indebted to a number of people in this institution and 
different institutions around the country, but in a strange irony, at a 
stroke before midnight, one of the elements that has been driving 
reform is undermining a critical component of the change.
  Much of what America knows about the abuses of campaign reform has 
come through the media. Across the Congress today, the Broadcasters 
Association, led by scores of lobbyists representing millions of 
dollars of donations of the very type and scale that we seek to 
control, is undermining the bill.
  Campaign finance reform, as passed by this Senate and the legislation 
pending in the House, includes a critical component for controlling and 
reducing the cost of television advertising.
  The amendment, widely accepted in both Houses of Congress, is based 
on the proposition that controlling the amount of money raised must be 
met by an ability to control the amount of money spent. Controlling 
campaign fundraising without helping with the cost of campaigns will 
simply result in a diminished national political debate. Candidates 
will raise less money, and if the cost of advertising remains as high, 
we will lose the competitive debate, the exchange of ideas so vital to 
our democracy.
  As any candidate for Federal office in the United States is painfully 
aware, the cost of campaigns is the cost of television advertising. 
Eighty-five percent of the cost of a Senate campaign goes to the 
television networks.
  Under the amendment as passed by this institution, the networks would 
be required to sell time at the lowest unit rate available; that is, 
whatever rate they have set for their customers and sold at their 
lowest cost they must make available to a candidate for Federal office.
  This provision was in previous Federal law since 1971, but in 1990 an 
FCC audit found that 80 percent of the stations had failed to give the 
lowest rate available. During the 2000 elections, a typical candidate 
had 65 percent of their advertising sold at above that lowest rate.
  With my amendment now placed in the McCain-Feingold bill, passed by 
this Senate by a 69-to-31 vote on a bipartisan basis, that provision is 
now strengthened. It becomes mandatory, and it has the best chance of 
controlling these costs.
  The chart on my left shows the scale of the problem: The percentage 
of ads actually sold at the lowest unit rate in the fall of 2000. 
Congress believed it made this a requirement before, but it has been 
evaded in the majority of cases.
  Let's look at a few examples: Minneapolis, WCCO, 95 percent of the 
ads sold were not at the lowest rate; Detroit, WXYZ, 88 percent were 
not sold at the lowest rate. In my own market in northern New Jersey, 
WNBC New York, 78 percent were not sold at the lowest rate.
  In the year 2000, the buying of these television ads cost candidates 
$1 billion. This chart indicates as well the deluge of these ads, the 
amount of them now being placed on television.
  Very simply, if we cannot hold in the McCain-Feingold bill and the 
Shays-Meehan bill in the House this element of controlling cost, this 
vital compromise that is campaign finance reform will be broken. It 
must be raising and it must be spending, and I ask the television 
networks to forgo these excess profits on the Federal airways, licensed 
by the Federal Government for the public good. Be part of reform. Don't 
undermine the reform. Let's change the system now for everybody's 
benefit.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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