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Congressmen Shays and Meehan on Passing Campaign Finance Reform

Aired July 09, 2001 - 08:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: As Congress returns from its Independence Day recess, the debate is shaping up in the House on campaign finance reform. There's more than one measure at play here. And that's causing some interesting dynamics.

One is a bipartisan bill by Congressman Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan. And they're going to join us in just a moment. But first, let's check the road ahead for campaign finance.

Here's White House correspondent Major Garret to get you all set up with everything you need to know -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Colleen.

You know, if you remember the movie "Field of Dreams", there was that famous line: "If you build it, they will come."

Well, it's not exactly the same with campaign finance, but there is a parallel: If Congress passes it, the president will sign it. But the same onus applies to Congress as it did to that character Kevin Costner played. Congress has to do all the hard work -- basically, has build the field, has to pass the legislation.

And believe me, that's much harder than it sounds. The Senate and the House members run for reelection differently and often tailor bills differently to suit their particular needs. That's already happening now. Though the Senate and the leading House bill are similar, there are some differences. And there's a lot of interplay between the two chambers.

Reconciling those and producing a final product will be difficult. But the White House is in no way guiding or controlling this debate. They're looking at other issues this week and in the coming weeks -- among them: a patients bill of rights. The president today and the rest of the week is going to spend a lot of time trying to persuade members of Congress -- members of the House, in particular -- with speeches and with private lobbying, to pass a patients bill of rights he thinks he can sign that's different than the Senate-passed one.

The White House is going to let the debate on campaign finance carry its own weight and will sign something, if in fact Congress does the hard work to pass it -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right, thanks very much Major.

Now, one of those House bills is actually cosponsored by Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, and Representative Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Massachusetts. And they are in Boston and join us this morning.

Thank you both for being here.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), CONNECTICUT: Sure.

MCEDWARDS: Representative Shays, let me start with you. Your bill goes to the House this week. Tell us what its chances are.

SHAYS: Oh, I think the chances are very good. What we're trying to do is enforce the 1907 law that bans corporate treasury money from campaigns and the 1947 law that bans union dues money. We want the big money out, the corporate money out, the union dues money out, and restore the voice of the individual American. We think we're going to get it passed.

MCEDWARDS: Another bill has come forward, though, the one put forward by Senator Bob Ney of Ohio.

And, Representative Meehan, I want to know what you think this does. I mean, how much does this muddy the waters here?

REP. MARTY MEEHAN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I don't think it muddies the water at all.

There's only one campaign finance reform bill before the House this week. And it's the Shays-Meehan Bill. This bill is a sham. It would allow corporations to contribute up to $900,000 to the national parties. It would also allow corporations to contribute unlimited amounts of money to the state parties for federal elections.

So, basically, what you have is a loophole so great that all of these corporations and labor unions and wealthy individuals would basically funnel money to the state parties for federal campaigns. The other important distinction is, that bill -- which, the only purpose of that bill is to defeat real campaign finance reform -- allows members of Congress to pick up the phone and raise million- dollar contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations.

That's unacceptable. One of the reasons why we have difficulty getting the people's business done in Washington is because too many senators, too many House members, too many federal officials are raising million-dollar contributions.

MCEDWARDS: But, Representative Shays, aren't you losing support because of this bill? I mean, there's some key members of the Black Caucus saying that they want to defect at this point.

SHAYS: Well, first off, soft money as unlimited sums is addictive to both Republicans and Democrats. So, I mean, we're not surprised that there are going to be some who don't want to give it up. But the bottom line is, we had a difficult time passing this in '98, and we succeeded; a difficult time passing it in a different Congress in '99.

Now this is a third Congress, and we have the same problems. This bill could pass by 300 votes or it could pass by one or two, or it could lose by one or two votes. So it's important the American people call their members of Congress and say: We've had enough. I want my voice back into politics. I want you to vote for our bill.

MCEDWARDS: And, I mean, isn't that the point? I mean, many times this has come up in U.S. politics, and many, many times politicians, lawmakers have found a reason not to do it.

SHAYS: And you can find many reasons not to do it, but none of them are really very good. And that's why it's just important the American people watch what happens this week and watch what their members of Congress do.

MCEDWARDS: All right.

MEEHAN: There are plenty...

MCEDWARDS: Sure, go ahead.

MEEHAN: There are plenty of members -- plenty of members to defend the status quo. But the reality is, we have to change this system. It's having a corrupting influence on passing the patients bill of rights, on passing Medicare prescription drug coverage for seniors.

We can do better than that. And this week, the House of Representatives has an historic opportunity to do just that.

MCEDWARDS: Representative Meehan, I want to ask you about the other issue of restricting some of the political ads, which is also part of this issue, also part of this bill. The supporters of Ney's bill say that that's a retrench on free speech. Your bill would limit those, would ask that those ads not be run 60 days before a campaign.

Representative Meehan, how are you going to deal with that discrepancy?

MEEHAN: Well, they're just wrong. They're just wrong. And it's interesting to hear the opponents of reform cloak themselves around the Constitution, when the truth is, they're addicted to the soft money.

The Constitution is very, very clear. We don't try to limit ads. What we do is limit contributions. If ads are meant to influence an election, or they're political ads, then the public has a right to know where the money for those ads come from.

This doesn't regulate what ads come on; it regulates the money, the contributions. And the Supreme Court just two weeks ago, in the Colorado case, said when the -- when corruption is an issue or the appearance of corruption is an issue, then you can regulate contribution limits.

MCEDWARDS: All right...

(CROSSTALK)

SHAYS: Let me just add to that. Could I just add to this? The bottom line is, the ads continue, but they continue as campaign ads. And, therefore, out goes the corporate money and the union dues money.

But the ads can still run. And, most importantly, they're disclosed, both the expenditure -- who made the expenditure and who made the donation.

MCEDWARDS: Representative Shays, final question to you: If your bill does get through the House, does pass, what are the chances, do you think, that the president is going to sign such a bill?

SHAYS: I'm absolutely certain the president will sign the bill, because he said: If you ban corporate treasury money, you ban union dues money and you have disclosure of both the expenditure and who made the contributions, he's going to sign the bill. And that's what our bill does.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Representative Christopher Shays, Representative Marty Meehan, we've got to leave it there. Thank you both for your time this morning.

MEEHAN: Thanks very much.

SHAYS: Thank you.

MEEHAN: Thanks very much.

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