Politics

McCain Gets Reform Debate

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 22, 2001 / 8:10 AM EST / CBS

The Senate will begin debate on campaign finance legislation in mid-to late March, Senate Majority leader Trent Lott announced Friday after reaching general agreement on a timetable with Sen. John McCain.

"I think it's a win-win for all concerned," Lott said. The timetable grants McCain's insistence that the issue come up for a vote early in the year, yet the majority leader said it also gives President Bush "the opportunity that I thought he deserved ... to roll out his agenda."

McCain, R-Ariz., issued a statement saying he was pleased with the agreement and looked forward to working out remaining details to govern Senate action.

Lott, R-Miss., told reporters the Senate will act on Bush's education bill before the campaign finance measure comes to the floor and possibly on a budget as well.

The campaign finance measure would outlaw large, unregulated "soft money" donations from corporations, unions and individuals. It also includes other provisions to curtail the influence of money in politics.

Similar bills have died in the Senate in recent years, victims of filibusters supported by GOP leaders.

"We're going to open the door and say 'OK, here's the issue, let's go," Lott, an ardent opponent of the bill who wanted the debate to be later in the year, told reporters. "It's a jump ball - let the play begin."

Signaling his frustration at the annual haggling over the measure, he said, "I want to get this issue done and out of the Senate."

Supporters of the measure say last fall's elections strengthened their hand, and Lott and other opponents would have difficulty sustaining a filibuster this year.

McCain, who made campaign finance overhaul the centerpiece of his GOP presidential run a year ago, had threatened to force the issue to the Senate floor if he and Lott had been unable to agree on a timetable. "I also have a mandate," he said at one news conference.

The Arizonan also visited Bush in the White House this week for a discussion that dealt largely with campaign finance legislation.

Bush opposes some provisions of the bill, which leaves its fate uncertain.

Lott told reporters he expects to bring the bill to the floor the week of March 26. The timetable could accelerate by one week, he said, depending on when other legislation is ready for debate.

The Senate Republican leader said he agrees "in principle" with McCain on a wide-ranging two-week debate on campaign finance and told reporters he would discourage any efforts to filibuster the bill.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the most prominent opponent of the legislation, issued a statement congratulating Lott for an agreement "that allows the Senate to focus on President Bush's top agenda items ... prior to campaign reform. I eagerly await a wide-open and robust debate on the issue."

McCain and co-sponsor Russ Feingold, D-is., Monday will kick off a national tour of campaign finance-related town hall meetings in the home states of Republican senators who are wavering on the proposal, starting in Little Rock, Arkansas.

That is the home state of Sen. Tim Hutchinson, who faces a tough reelection fight in 2002 and whose brother, Asa, sponsored an alternative campaign finance measure in the House in 1998.