Jul 27, 2006 -- Leadership PAC Rider: Statement of Meredith McGehee, Policy Director of the Campaign Legal Center

Despite grandstanding promises in January to clean up Washington in response to public outrage over the Jack Abramoff scandal, Congress has done nothing of the sort. And now Congressional Leadership has the audacity to announce that it wants to up the ante in the "pay-to-play" game on Capitol Hill by allowing unlimited transfers from Leadership PACs to party committees.

This measure would open the floodgates on campaign contribution limits. For example, it would allow an individual who is limited to $4,200 in contributions during a Senate election cycle to funnel an additional $30,000 ($5,000 per year to the leadership PAC over six-years) to a Senator in a tough race. And if this measure is similar to the previous attempt made last fall, it would also serve to benefit incumbents exclusively. The definition of a leadership PAC in that version was an unauthorized committee that is associated with a federal official, but not affiliated with any authorized campaign committee.

Leadership PACs are the political slush funds of our era. Members of Congress utilize them to bypass campaign finance laws and in many cases to pay for absurdly lavish meals, travel and recreation. In the wake of the myriad abuses by Tom DeLay's ARMPAC that led to its forced closure and hefty fines, Congress should be working to ban Leadership PACs, not encouraging further misuse of these out-of-control fundraising vehicles.

Banning Leadership PACs is an essential step to clean up the culture of corruption on Capitol Hill that has undermined the faith of the American public in its elected officials.

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