The Gaggers and Gag-making

IT’S a common scene in Washington. Lobbyists representing powerful, well-financed special interests sit behind closed doors with members of Congress drafting legislation. Outside Washington, their dollars finance TV ad campaigns in the districts of wavering House members, hoping to pressure them into supporting the bill. Highly technical and complex legislation is then unveiled in the middle of the night, and most members of Congress have no time to read it before debate begins the next morning. Efforts by grassroots groups to amend the bill to protect their members are rebuffed, and though the bill contains provisions that even its sponsors admit are probably unconstitutional, such objections are shunted aside.

You may think this is a description of a special interest trying to benefit from some arcane budget bill, but in fact it is a description of the Shays-Meehan campaign-finance-regulation bill that passed the House in the wee hours of February 14. The passage of Shays-Meehan shows that those who think campaign-finance reform will reduce the influence of money in politics are mistaken.

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About the Author

Bradley A. Smith

Bradley A. Smith is chairman of the Institute for Free Speech and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

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IT’S a common scene in Washington. Lobbyists representing powerful, well-financed special interests sit behind closed doors with members of Congress drafting legislation. Outside Washington, their dollars finance TV ad campaigns in the districts of wavering House members, hoping to pressure them into supporting the bill. Highly technical and complex legislation is then unveiled in the middle of the night, and most members of Congress have no time to read it before debate begins the next morning. Efforts by grassroots groups to amend the bill to protect their members are rebuffed, and though the bill contains provisions that even its sponsors admit are probably unconstitutional, such objections are shunted aside.

You may think this is a description of a special interest trying to benefit from some arcane budget bill, but in fact it is a description of the Shays-Meehan campaign-finance-regulation bill that passed the House in the wee hours of February 14. The passage of Shays-Meehan shows that those who think campaign-finance reform will reduce the influence of money in politics are mistaken.