Public Campaign Action Fund - senate

Donors represent small slice of the country

Adam Smith — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:21:28 +0000

While Sen. Obama has boasted an amazing number of donors this election, cycle, the truth is, the number of Americans donating to candidates at the federal level remains relatively unchanged from previous elections.

Oil Money Trumps Energy Policy

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:06:43 +0000

Yesterday evening the Senate passed a watered down version of the energy bill that the House of Representatives passed last week. The oil and gas industry, and their allies in the Senate to whom they’ve given millions in campaign contributions, kept their billions in tax giveaways; while investment in alternative energy sources was deferred.

Senate Hearing on FENA

Katie Schlieper — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:01:18 +0000

Tomorrow's an exciting day! The Senate Rules Committee is set to hold the first hearing on the Fair Elections Now Act (FENA) to bring full public financing to congressional elections. Set to testify at the hearing are Sens. Richard Durbin and Arlen Specter who are the lead co-sponsors of FENA, our President and CEO Nick Nyhart, and other notable reformers, election law experts, and prominent political figures. Read more on the event here.

What Is McConnell Hiding?

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:11:11 +0000

Well, we've tried asking nicely but it hasn't worked so far so today, together with the Sunlight Foundation who have led this from the very beginning, we are taking things up a notch in our effort to get Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to reveal who is holding up a bill that would require Senators to file their campaign finance reports electronically.

We Are Family

Adam Smith — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:11:33 +0000

The Senate is considering legislation (possibly voting on it today) that would ban spouses of senators from lobbying any part of the chamber—unless the spouse was lobbying a year before the senator was elected.

Sen. Durbin's Speech In Support of Public Financing

Katie Schlieper — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:06:52 +0000

In his speech on the floor of the Senate announcing his intention to introduce a full public financing bill, Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL) asked his colleagues to think beyond initial ethics reform to a more comprehensive solution: "I hope it will only be the beginning and that we can move, even in this session of Congress, to meaningful hearings and the passage of public financing of campaigns that will truly reform the way we elect men and women to office at the Federal level and restore respect to this great institution of the U.S. Congress, both the House and the Senate. " Read on for the full text of the speech.

United for Transparency

Katie Schlieper — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:40:47 +0000

This is cool. A bipartisan bill was set for a vote in the Senate just before it recessed - the bill, designed to give more transparency to government spending, would create a searchable database of federal grants and contracts. But a Senator's placed a secret hold on it. Who? Bloggers are uniting to figure it out and hold the Senator in question accountable.

The Reform That Wasn't

Katie Schlieper — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:08:10 +0000

Check out David's article on the shortcomings of the Senate reform bill at TomPaine.com.

Two Places At Once: PA and IN Get Visits From Bush Today

Rick Bielke — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:54:33 +0000

A few more stories on the Bush White House’s cross country fundraising efforts on behalf of congressional candidates in tight races.