527 Reform Act of 2005

527 REFORM ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - April 05, 2006)

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, yesterday former majority leader TOM DELAY announced that he is resigning from the House. His former aides, Michael Scanlon and Tony Rudy, have pled guilty to crimes for their involvement in the Jack Abramoff corruption affair, and other aides to Mr. DeLay and even other current Members of this body remain under investigation.

Last November, Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham resigned from Congress for taking over $2 million in bribes from a defense contractor. He is now serving an 8-year prison sentence for his crimes.

The House Ethics Committee is broken and has done no work in the past 15 months. The committee managed to have its first meeting of the 109th Congress last week. On Sunday, The Washington Post said, ``The panel's inactivity in the face of scandal is itself scandalous.''

Today's bill is characterized as important campaign finance reform by the House Republicans. The question is, what effect would this bill have on the countless scandals that are currently engulfing Washington? The answer is nothing.

This bill does nothing to address those very serious charges of corruption. It would do nothing to prevent another Jack Abramoff or Duke Cunningham scandal.

Further, in addition to doing nothing, the bill actually makes it easier for scandals to occur by opening up the flood gates and removing all limits on State and national party committee spending in the Federal races.

Since this bill does nothing to reverse the Republican culture of corruption, let us look at this bill on the merits to see what it actually does.

What this proposal would do is curtail the free speech rights of millions of Americans. The bill would limit the ability of average citizens to band together and speak out about issues, both during and beyond election. It limits participation in the electoral process.

In 2004, 527 organizations helped to educate and register voters across the country. Now in 2002, the Shays-Meehan-McCain-Feingold bill actually was real reform with a clear purpose. It took Members of Congress out of the business of asking lobbyists and special interests for large, unregulated donations.

527 organizations, however, are not made up of elected officials. In fact, 527s are barred from coordinating with office holders, candidates or public officials. By law, these groups are independent, and I am not aware of any allegations that there was any illegal coordination between 527s and political parties in 2004. If there is, I would urge people with that knowledge to go to the Attorney General or to the FEC and report on this conduct. If there is some, there are mechanisms for enforcement, but the remedy to a nonproblem in that area is not to shut down free speech.

In fact, in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court upheld limitations on contributions as appropriate legislative tools to guard against the reality or appearance of improper influence stemming from candidates' dependence on large campaign contributions. Buckley also invalidated limitations on independent expenditures, on candidate expenditures from personal funds, and on overall campaign expenditures. The Court ruled that these provisions placed direct and substantial restrictions on the free speech rights guaranteed in the first amendment.

This bill directly contradicts the Buckley ruling. It violates the first amendment and will not withstand scrutiny by the Court.

Why are we considering this bill today? I suspect this is a last ditch effort for Republicans to keep their hold on power. They have read the polls. They know that most Americans are going to support Democrats this November, and the Republicans are losing on issue after issue. So they are going to try and change the rules which will keep them in power against the wishes of a majority of Americans.

Let me finish by reviewing the ethics rules that this Congress has passed this year. At the beginning of the year, shortly after Jack Abramoff pled guilty, House Republicans boldly pushed through their reform plan for Congress. What did their plan to crack down on ethics do? It banned former Members from lobbying in the House gym and on the House floor. So America, you can rest easy knowing that at least the cesspool of corruption at the Stairmaster is no more.

Today's bill is really a travesty. It is a joke. The country really should be embarrassed by the efforts this Congress is making, by the corruption that has been shown and I fear the corruption that is yet to be exposed in this body.

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