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Congress reforms finance system

By P. MITCHELL PROTHERO

WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- Seven years of contentious debate over the role of money in politics came to a close Wednesday as the Senate approved a ban on unregulated political donations to political parties. The 60 to 40 vote came hours after foes -- which included most conservatives in Congress -- failed in a last-ditch attempt to filibuster the bill.

The Senate approved an exact version of a measure passed last month by the House, thus avoiding the need for a conference committee, which opponents could have used to kill the measure, which was sponsored in the Senate by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.

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Feingold called the victory, "an exciting chance for reform," just prior to the final vote.

"This legislation provides a much needed reform to our political campaign finance laws," McCain said during a last minute floor speech that sounded more like a verbal victory lap than argument for the bill.

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"With the stroke of his pen, the president can eliminate the hundreds of millions of dollars of unregulated soft money that have caused the American people to question the integrity of their elected representatives," he added.

Opponents have a litany of complaints about the bill, the most serious of which is that it represents an unconstitutional limit to political speech. They also argue that limiting the political advertising by non-affiliated groups will protect incumbents and remove the ability of citizens to band together over common political causes.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, R, led much of the fight against the bill and has repeatedly promised to fight the bill in court over several provisions he calls "blatantly unconstitutional." But despite pressure from conservatives, the Bush White House has refused to issue a veto threat and the president's signature on the bill seems ensured.

"Regrettably, this bill will pass, and regrettably this bill will be signed by the president," McConnell said just prior to the vote. "Proponents say that this bill will remove unregulated donations from politics. It won't do that. It will take the money away from the parties and shift most of it to unregulated outside groups."

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"This is profoundly undemocratic," Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm said about the bill, just before the vote. "This violates what the founding fathers understood about being important... I think that you would have a concentration of power in the media, in these special interest groups that use the media...It's going to be harder and harder for people to get their view out if their view differs with the established power structure."

Passage became inevitable after an earlier vote on Wednesday, when proponents were able to summon the necessary 60 votes to end debate on the measure and move to final passage. Because an almost identical measure had passed the Senate last April with 59 votes, some worried that opponents would muster the support to indefinitely filibuster the bill.

But supporters of the measure prevailed with a 68 to 32 vote to end debate.

Prior to the cloture vote, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called the debate and the bill among the most crucial under consideration.

"The American people understand that special-interest money too often influences who runs, who wins and how they govern," he said. "The American people know that our current campaign finance system is broken. And, today, a clear majority of the Senate has said that it is time for us to fix it. The currency of politics should be ideas, not dollars. This bill will allow us to start putting that currency back into circulation."

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McCain, who called the day "a great moment," repeatedly said that the seven-year struggle, which has survived scheduling battles, unofficial holds and repeated filibuster threats, might not have come to pass without recent public scandals.

The revelations that recently bankrupted energy trader Enron had donated money to 71 of 100 senators and had pushed electric supply and commodities deregulation through the Capitol and lower statehouses helped the cause McCain said. Some Senators have also said that the Enron scandal -- which has highlighted close ties, although no apparently improper behavior -- to the Bush administration has ensured the president's signature.

With the end of debate, Senate rules require a final vote after 30-hours of additional debate, but an agreement between Daschle and the opponents have waived almost all that debate and allowed a final vote after three additional hours.

There had been some discussion of requiring the full amount of debate out of protest of the bill, but Daschle then threatened to keep the Senate in session around the clock until time ran out. And last Friday, to reinforce that threat, had cots delivered to the Capitol building as a reminder to possible insurgents.

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