Feinstein Works to Remove GOP Block of Transparency Bill

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For months, the Senate Republican leadership have worked to block a Senate bill that would make campaign contributions to Senate candidates immediately and easily searchable. Perhaps figuring that honey works better than vinegar, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) yesterday to ask if he would compromise on the latest effort to sink the bill. We’ve pasted the letter below.

All the bill would do is require Senate campaign reports to be filed electronically. That’s it. The House started doing that six years ago, and journalists, watchdogs, and others constantly rely on the House’s easily searchable records to see who’s giving to campaigns. The speed of that reporting is especially crucial near the end of campaigns, when Senate candidates’ voluminous paper filings, often hundreds of pages long, can make it much harder to figure out a candidates’ supporters.

The bill has forty co-sponsors, including sixteen Republicans. Time is running out for the bill to affect the 2008 elections.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has worked to block the bill for months. And Ensign, coincidentally also the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (which works to get Republicans elected to the Senate), stepped up this September to employ a canny strategy of attaching a “poison pill” amendment to the bill. We’d laid out the whole scheme here.

In her letter yesterday, Feinstein asks Ensign to be flexible on his offered amendment, which would require all non-profits that file ethics complaints against senators to disclose all donors who gave $5,000 or more.

Last week, a group of watchdogs from left and right wrote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and McConnell to ask that they defeat Ensign’s amendment, calling it “a clear attempt to intimidate the public from seeking enforcement of Senate ethics rules.”

November 14, 2007
The Honorable Jon Ensign
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Jon:

I am writing to ask for your assistance for S. 223, the “Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act,” to be brought up for consideration and passed by the Senate unencumbered by any amendments at the earliest possible time.

S. 223 has the broad bipartisan support of 40 cosponsors, including 16 Republicans. If you withdraw your amendment, I believe that this bill could be quickly considered and passed in wrap-up.

Your proposed amendment is not germane to the underlying bill and has not been reviewed by the Rules and Administration Committee. I understand that the amendment would require outside groups, such as advocacy and charitable organizations, that file ethics complaints to disclose their donors.

While S. 223 has broad bipartisan support in the Senate, your amendment has triggered broad ideologically diverse public opposition as exemplified by a letter to the Majority and Minority Leaders dated November 9, 2007.

In that letter, a large group of conservative and liberal non-profit organizations wrote to express their belief that the amendment is obstructionist and retaliatory, and runs counter to donors’ privacy, free speech, and association rights. In addition, they charge that the amendment would have an effect on existing tax laws. Clearly, these are issues that need to be addressed in a public forum.

I propose for your consideration that the Rules Committee hold a hearing at which you, representatives of the Ethics Committee and the Finance Committee, and other interested parties have the opportunity to testify on the subject of your amendment.

Please let me know if you are agreeable to this offer. I look forward to working with you on the proposed hearing and on final passage of S. 223.

With warm personal regards,

Dianne Feinstein
Chairman

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