[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10479-10480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE PARITY ACT

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, on April 17, just over a week ago, I 
rose, along with the Senator from Wisconsin, Senator Feingold, to ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate take up and adopt S. 223, which was 
reported unanimously by the Rules Committee on March 28. Senator 
Alexander objected on behalf of a Republican Senator. As a result, the 
bill remains in limbo. To this date, that Republican Senator has 
declined to come forward to say why the bill should not become law.
  This is such a simple, direct bill with respect to transparency. It 
is an idea whose time has long come. It is very hard for us to 
understand who could oppose this good government bill and what their 
reason for opposing it could be.
  After last week's roadblock halted passage, the minority leader's 
spokesman told the Washington Post:

       Senators are now reviewing the bill in anticipation of 
     legislative action.

  We would hope that review is complete. We could now get down to 
business and today, by unanimous consent, just as we did in the Rules 
Committee, pass this bill, send it to the House, and have it become 
law. At our hearing on March 14 and our markup on March 28, it was 
clear there was no public opposition whatsoever to this bill. It is 
really time for the Senate to act.
  The bill is titled the ``Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act.'' It 
is sponsored by Senators Feingold and Cochran and 33 additional 
Senators. It would simply require that the Senate campaign finance 
reports be filed electronically rather than in paper format, just as 
everyone else is doing now.
  Currently, House candidates, Presidential candidates, political 
action committees, and party committees are all required to file 
electronically. And they do. But Senators, Senate candidates, 
authorized campaign committees, and the Democratic and Republican 
senatorial campaign committees are exempt. As a result, we have a 
cumbersome system in which paper copies of disclosure reports are filed 
with the Senate Office of Public Records, which scans them to make an 
electronic copy and sends the copy to the FEC on a dedicated 
communications line. The FEC then prints the report and sends it to the 
vendor in Fredericksburg, VA, where the information is keyed in by hand 
and then transferred back to the FEC database at a cost of 
approximately $250,000 to the taxpayers. This is $250,000 which is 
needlessly spent to continue an archaic system. It is long past time to 
bring the Senate into the modern era.
  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to let this bill go 
today.
  I yield the floor to the author of the bill, the distinguished 
Senator from Wisconsin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin is recognized.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Madam President, I certainly thank the Senator from 
California, Mrs. Feinstein, once again for being so committed to 
getting this bill passed. It has been, as she said, over a week since 
we came to the floor to try to get the Senate to pass the Senate 
Campaign Parity Act.
  Last Tuesday, the senior Senator from Tennessee objected ``on behalf 
of a Republican Senator.'' Now we have waited to hear from that 
Senator, whoever he or she is, about his or her concerns about the 
bill. So far, not a word. It would not take very long to review this 
bill. It is very simple.
  In fact, it seems as if the source of the objection is hoping never 
to be identified because a citizen effort to find out who the objector 
is, supported by a number of blogs from both the right and the left, 
has so far come up empty.
  There has been a lot of discussion in the press and the blogs about 
whether the objection we heard last week constitutes one of those so-
called secret holds, which have rightly come under attack in recent 
years. Well, someone

[[Page 10480]]

anonymously blocked the bill from being passed last Tuesday, that 
person has made no effort to resolve his or her concerns with us, and 
the Republican leadership will not tell us who that person is. Now, 
that is a ``secret hold,'' in my book. It is time for some sunshine 
here. If someone has a problem with this bill, he or she should step 
forward and discuss it with us. I am hopeful that after a week to take 
a look at the bill, the objector will have realized how completely 
noncontroversial it is and will let it go through this week.
  This bill simply puts Senate campaigns under the same obligations to 
file their reports electronically that House and Presidential campaigns 
have been under for years. There is simply no reason the information in 
Senate campaign finance reports should remain less accessible to the 
public than any other campaign finance report.
  As the Senator from California said, we now have 37 bipartisan 
cosponsors, and not a single concern about the bill was heard in the 
Rules Committee. The bill passed the committee by a voice vote, and no 
one has come up to us with any concerns, even in this last week. So the 
time has come to get this done.
  I once again thank the Senator from California for her persistence. 
It is a pleasure to work with her.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I would like to thank the Senator 
from Wisconsin for his leadership and for his continuing interests. 
Hopefully, this will pass today.
  In that vein, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of calendar item No. 96, S. 223, a bill to 
require Senate candidates to file designated statements and reports in 
electronic form, and that the committee-reported amendment be 
considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be read three times, 
passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no 
intervening action.
  Mr. BUNNING. Madam President, on behalf of the Republican side, I 
object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Chair. We will be back and back and back 
again.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.

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