THE US: The US House of Representatives yesterday approved by 249 to 189 the most radical reform of campaign finance spending since the Watergate era. The legislation, known as the Shays-Meehan Bill, corresponds closely to Senate legislation agreed last year and should thus end up quickly on the president's desk for signature.
President Bush hinted strongly yesterday that he would reluctantly approve it.
The bill, which bans the use of unregulated "soft" money, was passed after a marathon debate during which members rejected two alternative bills and ten "poison pill" amendments, designed either to make the bill too extreme for moderates or to put in substantial differences to that agreed in the Senate. If that had happened the bill would have disappeared into "conference", a process which reconciles legislation agreed by the two houses, but which is also prone to filibuster.
"Soft" money, contributions from companies, individuals and unions, ostensibly raised to support party-building is used to circumvent limits on contributions in current legislation - instead of directly promoting candidates, "soft" money ads are used to focus on issues, but in practise the distinction is largely academic.
Yesterday, the main sponsor of the Senate legislation, maverick Republican Mr John McCain, said he believed they would get the agreed bill out of the Senate fast to the President.
The collapse of Enron and revelations of the company's extraordinary web of political connections mean, observers say, Mr Bush would find it politically embarrassing to veto the legislation.
The bill was passed by a bipartisan coalition that was led by Mr Christopher Shays (Rep, Connecticut) and Mr Martin Meehan (Dem, Massachussetts) and which included some 41 Republicans against the opposition of their House leadership. Mr Meehan acknowledges the role of the Enron affair in resuscitating the bill from a procedural limbo.
"Enron gets a whole lot of credit," he says. "The public knows that any past action with regard to Enron - or any future action with regard to Enron - is tainted and that any government actions have less credibility because of that money."
Feelings ran high during the 15-hour debate with accusations of hypocrisy common currency.
One of the groups most vehemently opposed was the National Rifle Association, whose supporters even put down a specific exception to the ban on "issue" ads ahead of elections to allow ads for promoters of the right to bear arms. It was defeated.
The bill bans the use of "soft" money to buy "issue ads" within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary. It also bans foreign contributions.
Another provision, added during debate, stripped out a requirement that would have tightened existing law requiring political broadcasting to be sold at a preferential rate. The legislation's backers nominally opposed the amendment - but the National Association of Broadcasters supported it.
