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Mar 28, 2007 -- A Sigh of Cautious Relief for Senate Electronic Disclosure: Statement of Meredith McGehee, Campaign Legal Center Policy Director The Rules Committee took an important first step today in moving the Senate beyond the era of the typing pool and into modern campaign disclosure practices after years of steadfast refusal. The Rules Committee, under the leadership of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), reported out S. 223, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, as a clean bill without any "poison pill" amendments. This straightforward bill, sponsored by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), would require Senate candidates to file their campaign disclosure reports electronically—like all other federal candidates, party committees and federal PACs.
It must be stressed that this is only an initial step and that previous attempts to pass this common sense piece of legislation have been killed, despite the fact that no Senator has been willing to admit his or her opposition. The current process is both wasteful and scandalous, and serves no other purpose than to hide the sources of campaign contributions from voters until after an election. We urge Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to work together to pass this important legislation before the Easter recess and to bring the Senate into the 21st Century.
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