Last week, we launched the web site - Pass223.com - to get support in the Senate for S. 223, a bill to require electronic filing of campaign finance reports. So far, there have been 338 calls to Senate offices asking senators to both support the bill and oppose the poison pill Ensign amendment. The comments coming back from our callers have been very helpful including some information on new support for the bill that we will be double checking soon. We still need your help in identifying supporters of the bill and opponents of the Ensign amendment. Please go to Pass223.com and call your senators.

One comment I’d like to pass on came from multiple callers to the office of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. According to Mikulski’s legislative aide, the senator is opposed to the Ensign amendment and would not vote for S. 223 were the amendment attached. From the comments:

He said she would oppose (vote against) the Ensign amendment, since it is an obvious poison pill effort to derail the bill, and that she would not vote for the bill if the Ensign amendment survived as part of the bill. Better to try again than allow gutted legislation to pass. - Andrew May, 08.06.08 @ 11:29 AM

I pressed and he said she was councerned about the “poison pill” amendment and wouldn’t vote for it were that amendment a part of it. - 08.06.08 @ 01:08 PM

These comments clearly show that the Ensign amendment is a poison pill designed to hurt the chances of passing S. 223. We need to identify more senators like Sen. Mikulski.

We still need your help in calling Senate offices. There are over 20 offices for which we have no comments. Please take the time to give your senator a call today. Go to Pass223.com.

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Today, the Sunlight Foundation launched a new web site, Pass223.com, to harness the distributed power of the Internet to pressure the Senate into increasing disclosure of campaign contributions by passing a bill - S. 223, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act - requiring senators to file their contribution reports electronically.

We need your help to pass this bill. Please follow the link to Pass223.com and call your senators to find out where they stand on S. 223. The site has full instructions on who your senators are, how to call, what to say, and how to report back to us. For more detail on the bill, keep reading.

Currently, presidential candidates and candidates running for the House of Representatives file their campaign contributions in electronic form. Electronic filing speeds the process by which campaign contribution data reaches the public over the Internet, allowing citizens and journalists to more easily spot a conflict of interest or an inappropriate contribution. Filers in the Senate do not file electronically, delaying disclosure by weeks and possibly months.

Passage of S. 223 appears to be a “no-brainer,” and isn’t publicly opposed by any senator. However, at every step of the way over the past year and a half the bill has been interrupted and blocked for a variety of reasons.

Right now, Sen. John Ensign (pronounced en-sen) is blocking the bill by insisting on adding a poison pill amendment. This poison pill is meant to protect senators from legitimate ethics complaints filed by outside groups. The amendment would impose an unconstitutional burden on on charities, religious organizations and other nonprofits by forcing them to disclose their donors when they file ethics complaints against sitting senators. Ensign’s amendment is opposed by a group of non-profits, religious groups, and charities from the right and the left.

For S. 223 to pass, Ensign’s amendment must be defeated. And to do that, we need you help in identifying senators who OPPOSE Ensign and SUPPORT S. 223. This is a great chance to help pass a long overdue bill.

Go to Pass223.com and get started calling your senators (remember, you have two of them). Don’t forget to report back so that we know where these senators stand on increasing campaign finance disclosure.

Pass223.com is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation, Public Citizen, Public Campaign, Center for Responsive Politics, Campaign Finance Institute, Change Congress, and Open the Government.

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