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Campaign Finance Reform
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From
the Presbyterian Washington Office
[1-28-02]
Senators McCain and Feingold urge President to support
genuine campaign finance reform in State of the Union address
You may want to do the same!
Campaign finance reform has become a prime issue on
Capitol Hill in response to the ENRON situation.
Advocates may want to join with senators McCain and
Feingold to urge the President not only to speak about it in his January
29th State of the Union Address, but to sign the bill when it comes to
his desk.
The White House comment line is 202-456-1414
=========================
January 25, 2002
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
With the House of Representatives poised to take up
the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill, we write to urge you to
now state that you will sign a reform bill that makes it to your desk
this year. We believe that the time to end the soft money system has
arrived, and we hope that you will now join us in this effort by
announcing in the State of the Union Address that you will sign a
campaign finance reform bill if the Congress sends one to you. We
believe such a statement would help assure the American people that you
are prepared to work with the Congress to restore public confidence in
our election system. As you know, the Senate passed the McCain-Feingold
bill in April by a wide bipartisan margin. The bill that emerged after a
two week debate, during which numerous amendments were considered and
many were added, represents a bipartisan consensus that reflects the
public's desire to clean up the soft money system. Similar legislation,
the Shays-Meehan bill, is about to be considered in the House, where it
has twice passed, in 1998 and 1999, by similarly decisive votes.
In the past, you have indicated that you would like to
see corporate and union soft money barred. You have aso stated on
numerous occasions that reform opponents should not rely on you to veto
the bill. But you have stopped short of endorsing the McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan
proposal, or even of pledging to sign it if it reaches your desk. This
has left uncertainty as to your intentions and led some to believe that
you actually oppose reform.
We understand that the current bill is not precisely
the bill that you would prefer. It is not precisely the bill that we
would prefer either. Compromises are necessary in the legislative
process, and we have already made many in the course of bringing the
bill to its current posture. In the wake of the Enron bankruptcy and the
investigations now underway in Congress and the Department of Justice,
it is important to assure the public that the soft money system that
gave this company great access to and influence over policymakers will
finally be ended. We urge you to seize this opportunity to join our
fight for reform, or at least to indicate that you will allow a bill
that emerges from the Congress this year to become law.
We thank you for your consideration and look forward
to your speech on Tuesday night.
Sincerely,
John McCain
United States Senator
Russ Feingold
United States Senator
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
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views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
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thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
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politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
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Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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