Prometheus 6

Bill would loosen '02 election finance law
Individuals' donations would get higher limit
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff  |  June 21, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A historic law that was designed to restrict the influence of money in election campaigns would be drastically weakened under legislation making its way through Congress.

Republicans and some Democrats in the House, unhappy with the fund-raising limits set by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, which made the biggest changes since Watergate in how campaigns are funded, are seeking to lift overall limits on contributions by individuals during an election cycle. That change would allow a single individual to funnel millions of dollars to political parties and candidates for federal office.

In the Senate, lawmakers are considering legislation that would raise the fund-raising and spending limits imposed on political action committees, or PACs, and allow members of Congress to donate to national party funds from their own ''leadership" committees.

Sponsors of the House legislation say the current limits unfairly restrict the right to help candidates pay for expensive campaigns. Officials in both parties also want to strengthen the role of the political parties. Democratic and Republican leaders indicated they were irritated last year at the increased clout of interest groups such as America Coming Together and Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, which took advantage of a loophole in campaign finance law to raise large donations from individuals for TV ads.

The campaign finance legislation filed in both chambers at the start of this year was meant to tighten the activities of those interest groups, called ''527s" because of the section of the tax code that applies to them. But instead, the original sponsors say, the thrust of their bills has been changed by colleagues bent on undoing the 2002 law.