FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday,
April 9, 2002
Lieberman
Denounces Legislation Undercutting 527 Regulations
Calls
on House to Reject Amendment;
Introduces Alternative Legislation
WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Tuesday,
urged the House of Representatives to reject an amendment that
would undermine the so-called 527 stealth PAC law, an important
campaign finance reform authored by Lieberman and enacted two
years ago in an effort to rid the nation’s electoral campaigns
of undisclosed campaign cash.
“I am truly troubled by the provision the House is
scheduled to consider tomorrow,” Lieberman said.
“That provision goes much farther than necessary to
address the legitimate problem.
Instead, it threatens to open up a loophole that could
reintroduce undisclosed money into politics.”
Lieberman’s comments came at a press conference with
Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.,
Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), and Public Citizen
President Joan Claybrook, to release a report by Public Citizen
documenting the activities and regulation of tax-exempt 527
groups. The report found that while the 527 regulations have been
successful at informing voters about who is trying to influence
elections, more needs to be done to achieve full transparency.
“What this report highlights is that this is a time to
beef up the 527 law and its enforcement, not to water it
down,” Lieberman said. “After
fighting so hard for this bill to pass two years ago, and for
McCain-Feingold to pass just this year, we simply cannot
tolerate the idea that groups taking a tax-exemption from the
federal government will be able to influence our elections
without reporting about their activity to anyone,” Lieberman
said. “Our bill provides a road map on
how to fix the existing problems without creating new
ones.”
The 527 legislation enacted in 2000 requires 527
organizations to declare their existence, disclose the source of
their contributions, and how they spend those contributions, in
order to maintain their tax-exempt status.
The House amendment, sponsored by Representative Bill
Thomas, R-Calif., responds to a legitimate complaint – that a
number of state and local candidates and PACs must now report
the same activity twice. However,
the Thomas bill, Lieberman said, threatens to create new
loopholes by offering too broad an exemption from the reporting
requirements, allowing alleged state PACs out of the federal
reporting requirement even if they don't report all of their
activity on the state level.
Lieberman and Senator Kay Baily Hutchison, R-Texas, have
offered an alternative measure in the Senate to address the
duplicate reporting issue.
Lieberman explained that the bill, introduced Tuesday,
differs from the Thomas legislation in that it does not offer an
exemption to state
PACs that don't report all of their large contributions and
spending on the state level.
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