Bush supports 527 reform legislation

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- President Bush supports efforts in Congress to pass campaign finance reforms that would close loopholes letting in soft funds, the White House said Thursday.

"He made it very clear that we were going to work with Senator McCain to coordinate legal strategies to try to stop all this soft money activities that is going on in this campaign cycle and if that didn't work then he wanted to look at legislative ways we could accomplish that," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., sponsors of the original 2002 campaign finance reform legislation, have joined together to submit the 527 Reform Act to shut down third-party groups funded by unlimited soft money donations.

McClellan said he did not know if Bush had read the legislation, but added, "It's the soft money that the president thought he got rid of when he signed the campaign finance reforms into law."