[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 26, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1137-S1142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we have just received the Shays-Meehan 
campaign finance reform bill from the House. As I have said before, 
this bill gives us the first real chance in a generation to limit the 
access of special interests to the political process.
  I had intended to ask consent to take up and pass this bill 
immediately. However, the Republican leader has indicated to me that he 
was making progress on reaching an agreement on how to proceed with 
campaign finance reform. Therefore, I am willing to withhold my 
unanimous consent request at this time, pending an update from the 
Republican leader on how discussions on this issue in his caucus are 
proceeding.
  As my colleagues will recall, we tried to reach an agreement to take 
up the House-passed bill before the President's day recess. Opponents 
of reform objected, saying that they wanted time to look over the bill.
  They have now had more than a week. What they have found, I am sure, 
is a bill that is very similar to the McCain-Feingold bill that the 
Senate passed last spring.
  At the time, we spent 2 weeks on McCain-Feingold. We had a full, 
fair, and open debate, and we passed that bill with a strong bipartisan 
majority. I see no reason why we can't take this bill up and pass it 
quickly.
  In fact, the only reason I can think that anyone would oppose consent 
would be to take one more shot at keeping this bill from becoming 
law—either by filibustering or by trying to send this bill to a 
conference.
  And so I say to them: Look what happened in the House. Opponents of 
reform used every conceivable argument and excuse—every 
imaginable ploy to stop this. They failed.
  This is going to be the year that we pass strong campaign finance 
reform, and put the reins of government back into the hands of all of 
the people. The sooner we pass this bill, the sooner we can get it to 
the President for his signature. I look forward to revisiting this 
issue in the near future.
  I will not, as I say, ask consent at this time, and I appreciate very 
much the consultation I have had with the Republican leader in this 
regard.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I thank Senator Daschle for his comments. 
While there are some similarities between the two bills--McCain-
Feingold, which passed the Senate, and Shays-Meehan, which has passed 
the House--there are some fundamental differences between the two 
bills. Normally, what you do under the circumstances is go to 
conference. But this week we have had to review what was actually in 
the bill that passed the House. We have now received the conference 
report. The Senators did just return yesterday--or even this morning. 
There are discussions among those who are interested in getting a 
result, not trying to create a problem. If we went right to it at this 
point, I am sure there would be Senators on both sides who would feel 
inclined to offer amendments, and it could take considerable time.
  We had indicated we would try to wrap up election reform as soon as 
possible--hopefully today--and that we would get on energy and stay on 
energy as long as it took to get that completed. I think giving us a 
little time for discussions to take place between the interested 
Senators would be constructive and would allow us to go forward with 
election reform and even get started on the energy bill, recognizing 
that the majority leader could interject this at any point along the 
way. There is no need and no desire to delay this indefinitely. I think 
a little time--a couple days--would be constructive. Maybe we can find 
a way to do it in an acceptable way and quicker by doing that.
  I appreciate the patience of the majority leader. I have found from 
past experience that sometimes patience gives great rewards; other 
times, it does no good at all. I hope this time it will be positive in 
its result.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Levin). The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, if I can respond to the Republican 
leader, I appreciate his report and agree there are times when patience 
has shown its reward. I am hopeful this is one of those times. I will 
work with him.
  Obviously, patience at some point runs out. That will necessitate 
taking action as we had originally contemplated, but we certainly want 
to work with the Republican leader and his colleagues in an effort to 
see whether patience can be a productive experience in this case.
  I yield to the Senator from Wisconsin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I certainly thank the majority leader 
for his comments, and I thank the Republican leader for his comments. 
It sounds as if we may be moving toward a resolution of the campaign 
finance issue without a filibuster in the Senate. I am actually 
confident we will prevail if such a tactic is actually employed against 
us, but I do not think the American people will be well served if we 
have to take a significant amount of time to further debate an issue 
that we dealt with and essentially resolved last year during a very 
good 2-week debate process.
  We passed the McCain-Feingold bill by a vote of 59 to 41. The House 
passed the Shays-Meehan bill by a vote of 240 to 189. These are wide 
bipartisan margins in both Houses.
  Actually, I disagree with the minority leader. The differences 
between the bills are actually very slight. It is not enough to justify 
a conference committee which very well may never report a final bill. 
So Senator McCain and I have endorsed the House-passed bill and will 
ask our colleagues to vote for it, rejecting all attempts to amend it, 
however meritorious, so we can send this bill to the President. Should 
there be technical amendments necessary on which we could agree, we 
will be glad to consider supporting a technical corrections bill after 
the bill is enacted.
  I hope the leader's discussion bears fruit and we can come to 
agreement on terms of final debate and a vote on this legislation very 
soon. We have waited many years for this moment, as you know well 
because you have been one of the key leaders on this. The time to

[[Page S1142]]

act is now upon us. The days of soft money are truly numbered. The 
American people want us to finish this job, and we are going to do it.
  I again thank the majority leader for his consistent and excellent 
efforts to bring this bill quickly to a conclusion.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I again thank the Senator from Wisconsin 
and the Senator from Arizona for their determination and their resolute 
demonstration again today that we will see a successful conclusion of 
this legislation.
  I do not want anybody to be mistaken; this will happen either through 
procedural motions available to us or with a unanimous consent 
agreement. We will certainly try to take the path of least resistance, 
and if there is a way to reach unanimous consent, I would like to do 
that. But we must do that this week, within the next day or so, or we 
will be forced to take the alternative approach. This will happen.
  I appreciate the patience on the part of my two colleagues in 
particular who have been very supportive of our efforts to date, and 
hopefully we can see to it that patience is rewarded.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I say to the majority leader, Senator 
McCain, and Senator Feingold, who have labored so long on behalf of 
this legislation, if there were an effort to unduly delay the bill, it 
would probably be led by myself. I do, however, want an opportunity to 
talk with some of my colleagues who have returned today.
  We did have an opportunity to take a look at the House-passed bill 
over the past week and discover what is in it; it was a mystery to many 
of us. Once those discussions are complete, I believe we ought to be 
able to come to an agreement on how to complete the bill in an orderly 
fashion.

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