[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 14 (Thursday, February 14, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S831-S832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S831]]
                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM


                       Unanimous Consent Request

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, after consultation with the Republican 
colleagues, there is a unanimous consent request I wish to propound 
prior to this vote, if I may.
  Last night, late, the House passed the campaign finance reform bill. 
We are very appreciative of the tremendous work done by so many of our 
colleagues on the House side and are very pleased now that we are at a 
point where, hopefully, we can take this bill to the Senate floor and 
then send it off to the President. My hope is that we can do it with a 
minimum amount of additional debate, given the fact that the bill is 
virtually the same one we passed in the Senate.
  I ask unanimous consent that the majority leader, after consultation 
with the Republican leader, may, at any time after the Senate has 
received the bill from the House, turn to the consideration of H.R. 
2356, the campaign finance reform bill; that there be 4 hours of debate 
equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that no 
amendments or motions be in order to the bill; that upon the use or 
yielding back of the time, the bill be read the third time and the 
Senate vote on final passage of the bill, the preceding occurring 
without any intervening action or debate.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object--and I 
will object--I just wanted to say to the majority leader, and 
particularly to Senators McCain and Feingold, I congratulate them for 
their success to date on this issue. There was certainly an 
overwhelming victory in the House yesterday. But, as we all know, this 
legislation kept being rewritten during the night. It finally passed at 
3 a.m.
  We have people on my side of this issue who did not prevail in the 
House yesterday, and they would like to have an adequate time to read 
the legislation. Fortunately, we are not in session next week, which 
gives everybody on both sides an opportunity to look at the fine print, 
because at this stage, I say to my friend from Arizona, we are shooting 
with real bullets. This could well become law. I don't think any harm 
is done by simply leaving the majority leader in the same position he 
would be in a week from Tuesday, to propound a similar unanimous 
consent request.

  For the moment, pending a thorough scrutiny of the legislation that 
passed at 3 o'clock this morning, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I hope everybody will take the time to 
look at the legislation with whatever care they wish to use in 
addressing the concerns raised by the Senator from Kentucky. It is my 
intention to bring this to the floor as quickly as possible when we 
return. I will accommodate requests for additional time if the 4 hours 
isn't adequate. We can move to a longer period of time. But I do hope, 
given the fact that we had good and very healthy debate almost a year 
ago, given the fact now that the House has adopted virtually the bill 
that we passed in the Senate, we can have a debate without indefinite 
delay. So I hope we can reach some unanimous consent request when we 
return. I will propound another one as soon as we return. But I 
appreciate the involvement of our colleagues.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Kentucky and 
comment again that he has fought a good fight. The opponents of this 
bill have fought tenaciously, honorably, and I believe they certainly 
have a right to examine legislation that was passed as late as 3 
o'clock in the morning.
  I want to point out also that, of the 140 bills that have become law 
during the 107th Congress, only 19 necessitated conference committees 
between the 2 Houses of Congress. Eighty-six percent of the bills that 
became law during the 107th Congress did not require a conference 
committee between the Houses.
  Some of these bills, obviously, are not of great importance. Some are 
of great importance, such as the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act 
and the Railroad Retirement and Survivors Act. There are many very 
important pieces of legislation that did not require a conference. I 
believe that, upon examination, my colleagues will see that the bill is 
basically the same as the one that was passed by the Senate, with the 
exception of the Torricelli amendment, which had to do with the lowest 
unit rate requirement for the purchase of television ads.
  Frankly, in the interest of straight talk, I have never seen any way 
you can emerge victorious over the broadcasters. The broadcasters have 
$70 billion worth of spectrum. They win no matter what. If anybody 
thinks we can beat the broadcasters, I would like to interest you in 
some desert land in Arizona.
  Aside from that amendment, the bill is really in its original form as 
passed by the Senate. Again, I want to say not only to my colleagues in 
the Senate but to those in the other body, this has been a very 
emotional, spirited debate. A great deal is at stake. As the Senator 
from Kentucky said, we are shooting with real bullets here. The 
President's spokesperson said the President would sign this bill if it 
was passed by both Houses. It has been passed by both Houses, and I 
look forward to the opportunity of seeing it pass. We did have several 
weeks of debate and amendments on the floor of the Senate. So I am not 
sure it would show any particular improvement by further debate and 
votes because we have been over this ground pretty thoroughly.

  Again, I thank the majority leader for his attention and priority of 
this issue. I will point out, I think the Senator from Kentucky knows 
the effective date is November 6, rather than the date of enactment as 
passed through the Senate. There are a number of reasons for that, but 
primarily we are so late in the campaign season, it would be very 
difficult to sort out moneys that are spent and obligated. There would 
be a lot of court challenges and questions as to the whole financing 
structure of the campaign of 2002. So I thank the majority leader.
  I yield to my colleague from Kentucky.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I say to my friend from Arizona, I don't know whether 
we will end up not having these annual dances we have had over the last 
decade or so. But if in fact that is the way it is, I have enjoyed the 
debates we have had over the years. If it ends up that we don't have 
these anymore, I will sort of miss them in a perverse sort of way.
  I want to say that, with regard to the hard money issue, which the 
Senator from Arizona knows I care deeply about--and he has been 
supportive of that as well--I think great progress has been made on 
that subject in the bill of which the Senator from Arizona was a 
principal sponsor, which left the Senate and passed the House. Both 
candidates and parties have been operating under hard dollar limits set 
at a time when a Mustang cost $2,700. We did a study of the cost to 
candidates over a 6-year term, and for the typical candidate in America 
over a 6-year term, the cost of running the same campaign he ran 6 
years before is up 40 percent. So certainly that is a good feature in 
the bill.
  Again, I commend the Senator from Arizona for his steadfast interest 
in this issue, and he has been a great competitor.
  I admire him greatly. We will be prepared to deal with this issue 
after the recess.
  Mr. McCAIN. I thank my friend from Kentucky for his kind words. I do 
want to say, I may not miss it at all.
  (Laughter.)
  My friend from Wisconsin is here. We shared the very wonderful moment 
last night with our colleagues in the House and Congressman Meehan and 
Congressman Shays. It was quite a remarkable time. I am glad to have 
been able to be a part of this process.
  I say again, the opposition has been principled, honorable, and 
ferocious. That is in the tradition of the Senate.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I spoke this morning of the great 
victory of campaign finance reform in the House last night and the 
importance of taking up a bill quickly in the Senate so we can send it 
to the President. I expressed concern that games might be played by the 
House leadership in transmitting the bill to the Senate so we can 
consider it. I was pleased by the announcement this afternoon by

[[Page S832]]

Speaker Hastert that the bill should come over to us in a matter of 
days. That is good news, and I am pleased to hear it.
  I, too, thank the Senator from Kentucky. He was very gracious in his 
remarks today. Whether or not we miss this process in the future is one 
issue. Certainly that has been the nature of the experience over these 
many years, and I sincerely thank him for that.
  The possibility of delay still exists in this body. I sincerely thank 
the majority leader for his tremendous commitment today to bring up the 
bill in the Senate as soon as it comes over and to lead us in fighting 
through whatever procedural hoops might be placed in our path to try to 
stop the Senate from acting on the bill.
  We had a long, fair, and good debate last year on this legislation. 
Any effort to prevent the Senate from acting on the bill I think will 
simply delay the inevitable; it would frustrate the will of the Senate 
and the will of the American people.
  Yesterday's strong bipartisan vote in the House after marathon debate 
demonstrates once again the time has come to pass the bill. As much as 
some tried to deny or rationalize it, the soft money system taints all 
of us in this body, and it truly undermines our credibility with the 
American people.
  There does come a time when we have to say enough. That time is now. 
As soon as the bill comes to us from the House, let's take it up; let 
everyone say a final word about their positions, and then send it to 
the President to be signed into law.
  Again, I thank the majority leader. I thank my good friend, Senator 
McCain. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Reed). The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from 
Wisconsin and the distinguished Senator from Arizona for their 
incredible leadership. History will be written, and when it is, these 
two outstanding Senators will be acknowledged for the tremendous 
contribution they have made to the improvement of our political system.
  Once again, and not for the last time, I acknowledge their leadership 
and appreciate very much the effort they have made to get us to this 
point.

                          ____________________