Russ Feingold: “I rise in favor of the McCain-Feingold-Lieberman amendment. I hope we will have an overwhelming vote later this…”

“I rise in favor of the McCain-Feingold-Lieberman amendment. I hope we will have an overwhelming vote later this afternoon in favor of full disclosure of the contributions and expenditures of 527 organizations. As we discussed yesterday on the floor, these organizations are the new stealth player in our electoral system. They claim a tax exemption under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, a provision that was intended to cover political committees such as party organizations or PACs. At the same time, they refuse to register with the Federal Election Commission and report their activities like other political committees because they claim they are not engaged so-called express advocacy. In other words, these groups admit they exist for the purpose of influencing elections for purposes of the tax laws, but deny they are political committees for purposes of the election laws. That, my colleagues, is the very definition of evading the law. If it is legal, it is, as some have called it, the 'mother of all loopholes.'”