Russ Feingold: “I am pleased to be working once again with my partner in reform, the senior Senator from Arizona, Senator McCain, to…”

“I am pleased to be working once again with my partner in reform, the senior Senator from Arizona, Senator McCain, to introduce the 527 Reform Act. Our purpose is simple--to pass legislation that will do what the FEC could and should do under current law, but, once again, has failed to do. Current Federal election law requires these groups to register as political committees and to stop raising and spending soft money. But the FEC has failed to enforce the law, so we must act in the Congress. This bill will make it absolutely clear that the federal election laws apply to 527 organizations. We had to something similar with BCRA, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which passed in 2002, closing the soft money loophole that the FEC created in the late '70s and expanded in the '90s. That struggle took seven years. We have now been seeking to bring 527s within the law for four. This bill will require all 527s to register as political committees unless they fall into a number of narrow categories.”