House Panel Seeks to Curb Some Fundraising (527s)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/29/05 | AP - Washington, DC

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - Upset by the millions of dollars that outside groups spent in the 2004 election, a House panel on Wednesday took a step toward limiting such organizations.

The House Administration Committee, on a 5-3 vote, sent a bill to the full House that would place tax-exempt partisan groups under the same fundraising and spending limits that apply to political action committees.

The House is expected to act on the legislation sponsored by Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass., next month.

In the last election, the groups, commonly known as 527s for the section of the tax law that covers them, raised about $534 million and spent roughly $544 million, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Political Money Line, which tracks campaign spending.

Groups that backed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry and opposed President Bush raised $266 million. Organizations opposed to Kerry and backing the president collected $144 million.

Drawing the ire of many Republicans in Congress was financier George Soros. He made multimillion-dollar donations to groups such as the Media Fund and America Coming Together, which were active in advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. The groups challenged Bush administration policies.

Boosting the Bush campaign effort was Texas homebuilder Bob Perry. He donated millions to fund the anti-Kerry organization Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

The House committee chairman, Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, showed slides of the contributions Soros, Perry and others had made to the outside political groups. Soros gave $23.5 million while Perry donated $8.1 million.

Ney said the far-reaching campaign finance law of 2002 that limited unregulated money "distorted our political process by taking power away from our political parties and redistributing it to less accountable, ideologically driven outside groups."

The Senate is considering its own version of the bill.

___

On the Net:

Information on the bill, H.R. 513, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/

House Administration Committee: http://www.house.gov/cha/

[Fido969]

I think this will croak the dims.

[Maceman]

Upset by the millions of dollars that outside groups spent in the 2004 election, a House panel on Wednesday took a step toward limiting such organizations.

Outside groups . . . also known as "We The People"

[Phlap]

Your tag line just quacked me up. lol

[Wristpin]

"Outside groups . . . also known as "We The People"

The Supreme Rulers have already ruled that money is not free speech. This is good as Soros, Fonda and the progressive insurance guy will be held to the same $2K contribution as Joe Schmoe.