Senate Rules Committee Holds Hearing on Campaign Finance  ...1 of 4 >
April 30, 2014 - In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in McCutcheon vs. FEC, striking down aggregrate contribution limits to federal candidates and committees, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on "Dollars and Sense: How Undisclosed Money and Post-McCutcheon Campaign Finance Will Afftect the 2014 Election and Beyond."
The Committee heard from retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.  First, however, Sen. Angus King (I-ME), Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Chairman Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) made opening statements. 
Sen. King's opening statement included a number of charts prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics showing the explosion of outside spending in campaigns, particularly by groups that are not required to disclose donors.  King declared that,

"A perfect storm of new forces — court opinions, clever political operatives, and the high-stakes inherent in governmental decisions — have created a qualitatively new political landscape, where candidates are compelled to raise more and more money and yet, at the same time have to contend with virtually unlimited spending by shadowy entities representing nameless donors."

Further, he said, ''What has occurred in the past five years represents revolutionary, not evolutionary, change in the way campaigns are financed in America."
Sen. Roberts had just one chart, a chart bearing the text of the First Amendment.  Roberts condemned the last major campaign finance reform effort, the McCain-Feingold legislation passed in 2002.  He stated,

"Because the courts have porperly found much of their last effort to be unconstitutional, they have proposed new regulatory schemes under the guise of 'disclosure."  No longer able to simply prohibit speech they do not like, they seek to prevent it by imposing onerous disclosure requirements on those who wish to speak."

"Let's stop this fool's errand of speech regulation," Roberts declared.
Sen. Schumer argued that, "The First Amendment is sacred, but the First Amendment is not absolute."  He pointed to examples such as anti-pornography laws, prohibitions against yelling fire in a crowded theater, and noise ordinances.  Schumer said the McCutcheon decision is "a real turning point in our debate about money in politics."

"McCutcheon seemed to say that free speech, absolutely defined as McCutcheon does, allows anyone to spend any amount of money in any way in our political system.   McCutcheon carried to its logical extreme will get rid of individual limits, will get rid of limits on corporations...just allow money to totally, totally envelope our system.  It is frightening.  It is frightening."

Schumer also announced that the Senate Democrats will bring to the floor "shortly" a constitutional amendment by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) to allow Congress to regulate campaign finance, countering the Supreme Court's decisions in such cases as Citizens United and McCutcheon.  [S.J. Res. 19, introduced by Udall, in June 2013, has 35 co-sponsors, but not a single Republican among them].

corrected May 4, 2014
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