NO LIMITS BUT FULL DISCLOSURE
I have proposed a bill to uproot the tired and failed policies of the past and to open
the process to more Americans. The Citizen Legislature and Political Freedom Act, H.R.
965, repeals existing limits on the amounts individuals and political action committees
may contribute to candidates or parties, and repeals the limits on how much parties may
contribute to candidates.
Both academic research and real world experience show that challengers need a lot of
money to overcome the advantages of incumbency and to be competitive. Higher spending
plainly helps challengers more; spending limits tend to benefit incumbents. In 1994, every
successful Senate challenger and two-thirds of all successful House challengers spent more
than the limits proposed in McCain-Feingold, the campaign finance regulators' favored
bill.
Today's unreasonable contribution limits make it difficult for challengers to raise the
funds they need. The answer is to eliminate limits on campaign contributions so that
challengers can raise the seed money they need to become competitive
Lifting contribution limits is a bold proposition in the face of the current regulatory
scheme, but it is only half of the equation. The system of financing campaigns will not
truly be free until the American people are empowered to make informed decisions about the
candidates they vote for and the forces that might influence them.
The key to a free system is the full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions.
Full disclosure will enable voters to identify and understand the interests that may
influence a certain candidate and to vote accordingly.
The Citizen Legislature and Political Freedom Act accomplishes this goal by making a
number of improvements to the current system of disclosing contributions. First, the bill
requires electronic filing of campaign reports, including 24-hour filings during the last
three months of a campaign. Congress must take advantage of the advances in technology
that are enabling campaigns to communicate information to the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) much more efficiently than in the past
While timely reporting to the FEC is important, the information is most powerful when
it is available to the voters. That's why the Citizen Legislature and Political Freedom
Act also requires the FEC to post all campaign reports on the Internet. Think about it.
Every citizen with a computer or access to the Internet can be his own campaign watchdog.
In addition to these disclosure requirements, the issue of so-called "soft
money" is addressed by requiring the national parties to distinguish between their
federal and non-federal accounts so that parties will be forced to disclose how much money
they send to the state parties for state, local, and mixed activities. Additionally, the
bill requires state parties to file with the FEC a copy of the same disclosure form they
file with their state election offices. In deference to principles of federalism, my bill
does not require uniformity among the state forms. Once posted on the Internet, however, a
central repository of state disclosure information will be available for all citizens to
see how money given to the national parties was spent.
The Citizen Legislature and Political Freedom Act also bars acceptance of campaign
contributions unless specific disclosure requirements are met. For example, the Federal
Election Campaign Act lists the information that must be disclosed when a campaign takes
an individual's contribution, but then guts the requirement in practice by allowing
campaigns to claim they made their "best effort" to obtain the proper
information. Under my proposal, campaigns would not be allowed to take any contribution
without full and proper disclosure.
Finally, my proposal terminates taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "To compel a man to furnish contributions for the propagation
of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Since its
creation over 25 years ago, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund has sent nearly $900
million in tax dollars to subsidize presidential aspirants who have offended Americans of
all political persuasions.
Candidates deemed qualified to receive federal subsidies include convicted felon and
perennial candidate, Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche has raked in more than $2.5 million from
taxpayers over the last 20 years, despite the fact that he served a 5-year prison term for
fraud and tax law violations, and has run on a platform that includes a provision to
colonize Mars.
Support for public financing is at an all-time low, with fewer than 15 percent of
Americans checking the box to earmark a few dollars for the presidential fund. At a time
when we are attempting to balance the federal budget for the first time in a generation,
this subsidy for candidates can no longer be justified.
Supporters and critics alike have called the Citizen Legislature and Political Freedom
Act a "radical" reform idea. It certainly is different from the
heavy-hand-of-regulation approaches that have received lots of media attention thus far.
Yet, I believe we are going to see the momentum grow for new thinking on the campaign
finance issue.
At some point, Congress will stop trying to micromanage the system, and will follow the
advice of Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote, "I know of no safe depository of the
ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not
enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is
not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion."
John Doolittle has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since
1990, representing the people of California's 4th District, in the heart of Gold Country.
May/June 1998 -- Florida Business Insight, 501 N. Adams St., Tallahassee,
Fla. 32302
(850)224-7173, insight@aif.com
