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Tuesday September 14, 1999 The House of Representitives debated on and voted down The Thomas Substitute Amendment, coincidentally number thirteen, to the Shays-Meehan Bill, loosely refered to as the Campaign Finance Reform Bill.
Representitive Bill Thomas ( R ) of California authored the substitute bill and obviously controlled the time allotted for debate in favor of the measure, and Steny Hoyer ( D ) claimed the time in opposition. In general, Thomas and his speakers discribed the contents of the substitute and it's ' passibility '. Hoyer, and argueably a rather large number of Republicans, took the time to exhort Shays-Meehan's tough language over the smaller and less draconian Thomas Substitute. This, in fact, illustrated the reason why the Thomas substitute works but the more farther ranging Shays-Meehan bill is just not passable all the way through to being enacted into law.
Some differences and similarities included:
1) Thomas bans foreign soft money contributions, period; no ups and no extras; wherein Shays-Meehan bans soft money outright. Many scholars see the outright ban as an infringement on free speech, including, amazingly the ACLU ( like you guys thought I would ever agree with them? ). The Thomas substitute seems infinitely more passable in the Senate to me.
2) The Thomas substitute allows contribution of soft money by Americans in America. Obviously Shays-Meehan bans it. Look, not all special interest groups are bad. Are you going to mean mouth MADD ( Mothers Against Drunk Driving )?
3) The Thomas substitute would shorten the official filing times for reports to the FEC ( Federal Election Commission ) from forty-eight hours to twenty-four; something not addressed in Shays-Meehan at all. Thomas himself pointed out that the times are changing and the campaign laws should keep up with shortened lines of communication, so to speak. After all, we are not using the Pony Express anymore!
Bill Thomas opened the debate with, " Tomorrow is always a day away ", referring to the unsucessful attempts to pass this type of legislation in the recent past. His contention is that this is a great first step and stands an excellent chance of passing the Senate and being signed into law by the White House. He said he was proud to " offer change that has been needed for a quarter century ". Thomas may be correct, that once again the Congress is trying to bite off more than it can chew with Shays-Meehan and should pass a more realistic measure like the Thomas substitute. He closed with, " If you want to make a political statement, vote for Shays-Meehan. If you want to make law, vote for the Thomas substitute ". Thomas recognizes that most of these politicians would rather have something to argue about, instead of passing something!
Vernon Ehlers ( R ) said, " The times have passed the election laws by...bring the system up to date ".
Jim Moran ( D ) exclaimed that the Thomas substitute was " a cynical ploy to kill campaign finance reform ". I believe it is he who is cynical; supporting something he knows will not pass and only become a political football!
Christopher Shays ( R ) whined, " As an amendment it would help us; as a substitute it kills us ".
These guys had nothing bad to say about the content, only that the Thomas substitute was some evil disguised campaign finance legislation killer. Funny, I thought it sounded like some reform that would pass muster and not die on the vine!
Steny Hoyer closed with, " It is not campaign finance reform...reject the Thomas substitute ". That is about as substantiative as he was going to get. The only thing they had against the Thomas Substitute was a bunch of hot air ( possibly fueled by union dollars not covered under Shays-Meehan? ).
John Mica ( R ) closed rather direct and to the point, with, " There is only one thing wrong with Shays-Meehan; it shreads that precious First Amendment ". He quoted the ACLU, imagine that?
The Thomas Substitute failed rather miserably at 173 to 256, with 168 Republicans voting for it and a handfull of five Democrats. Shays-Meehan passed, obviously; and I bet will stall in the Senate, oh well.
- Bongo ( Crawl out from underneath your rock? )
