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August 14, 1987 - Image 32

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1987-08-14

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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I

Senate Bill Seeks To Limit
PAC Support For Candidates

JAMES DAVID BESSER

Special to The Jewish News

I

t 's that dreaded time of the
year for Washington re-
porters, when Congress is
wending its way towards its
summer vacation, and every
potential news source worthy of
the name is enjoying some
more sensible climate.
Congress is taking advantage
of the semi-official lull to con-
sider legislation that could
have a significant impact on
the operation of the pro-Israel
lobby here. S-2 is a campaign
finance bill designed to limit
the power of political action
committees in Senate elections.
Sponsored by Sens. Robert
Byrd and David Boren, the bill
would place a cap on how much
money an individual candidate
could take in aggregate from
PACs.
At the same time the bill
would offer a variety of incen-
tives for candidates to accept
voluntary spending limits, in-
cluding preferential rates for
buying commercial time on
radio and TV, and more
favorable postage rates.
The Jewish angle to this
story, of course, is that the pro-
Israel PACs represent the
fastest-growing and most suc-
cessful example of this par-
ticular species of political
pressure group. Currently, there
are more than 80 PACs devoted
to the issue of Israel, and their
vigor is demonstrated every
time a proposal to sell arms to
Saudi Arabia is introduced in
Congress.
Common Cause, along with
several Jewish groups on the
liberal end of the spectrum, are
supporting the measure.
"There is no attempt in this bill
to. do away with PACs," said
Kathleen Sheekey, legislative
director for Common Cause.
"The object of the legislation is
to restore some balance in giv-
ing between individuals and
PACs. In recent years, that
balance has become more and
more skewed towards PACs. It
is our hope that if this bill is
enacted, it will cause more in-
dividuals to give to can-
didates."
PACs, supporters of the
Byrd-Boren bill argue, distort
the legislative process by giv-
ing well-heeled special interest
groups disproportionate in-
fluence in Congress. Money
talks, the theory goes, and
money focused through clus-
ters of single-issue PACs talks
with special authority in an age
when even a bargain-basement
Senate campaign costs millions
of dollars.
A recent Common Cause
study revealed that the biggest
recipients of PAC money were

Senator Robert Byrd

senators on the key committees
— especially those involved in
foreign-affairs decision making.
"We found that nearly half of
the $850,000 given by pro-Isrel
PACS in 1985 went to members
sitting on committees with con-
siderable jurisdiction over U.S.
policymaking in the Middle
East," according to Michael
Rae, one of the study's authors.
Rae insisted that the pro-Israel
PACs were examined only as a
case study of the campaign
financing process, not because
their activities were less
legitimate than those of any
other group of PACs. "They
understand how the current
system works," he said, "and
they are effective in using it."
Opponents of the Byrd bill
argue that PACs account for
only a fifth of the total funding
for Senate candidates, a third
for aspirants to House seats.
They also point out that the
system that has evolved under
the 1974 campaign financing
law at least insures that money
from special interests is out in
the open — usually.
For the pro-Israel communi-
ty, the stakes in this debate are
hard to sort out. Because of the
cohesiveness of the Jewish
community on questions of
American support for Israel,
pro-Israel activists have been
particularly effective in using
the PAC system to influence
policy.
In fact, the PAC system is
well suited to minority groups
who can unite behind a issue or
set of issues. "If you do
anything to hamper PACs," one
political advisor to a Demo-
cratic senator said, "you
drastically limit the ability of
minorities to influence the
political process. This would
not help Jewish interests or
help Israel."
But others — especially
leaders of the "multi-issue"
Jewish PACs that have
sprouted in the past few years
— argue that the system of
PACs encourages single-issue
politics. The proliferation of
PACs that zero in on Israel
distorts the entire Jewish

political agenda, these activists
argue. In the long run, they say,
this narrowness of focus
isolates the Jewish community
from other groups in American
society.
Supporters of S-2 also see a
need for the legislation in terms
of the actual operation of Con-
gress. This is apparently the
reason for Sen. Byrd's energetic
sponsorship of the bill; as Ma-
jority Leader, he is the one
responsible for scheduling the
Senate's business. "Because of
the high cost of mounting a
Senate campaign," Kathleen
Sheekey of Common Cause
said, "senators are spending
more and more time raising
money, less time legislating.
This makes it increasingly dif-
ficult for the leadership to
schedule sessions; right now,
the Senate really only works on
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays. This legislation
won't necessarily change
that—but it's a start."

Growing Arms Race

There are as many different
opinions around Washington
about the best route to Middle
East peace as there are
presidential contenders. But
there is one issue that nobody
is debating — that the rush of
various Middle East countries
to ever-more-lethal military
technologies is proceeding
unchecked.
- And more than just the Mid-
dle East is threatened by this
trend; the potential for
chemical, biological and
nuclear warfare in the region
multiplies greatly the proba-
bility that the superpowers will
be dragged into the region's
next armed struggle.
The most immediate threat
comes from the growing
arsenals of chemical weapons,
according to experts here in
Washington. The State Depart-
ment is concerned, too,
although some analysts say not
concerned enough. In an order
issued last week, U.S. com-
panies were forbidden from ex-
porting a list of some eight
chemicals that can be used to
formulate deadly chemical
weapons This comes on top of
an earlier action by State
restricting the sales of certain
critical chemicals.
But there are many sources
of the raw materials needed for
these deadly substances. West
European companies in par-
ticular have supplied essential
chemicals to a number of Mid-
dle Eastern countries, in-
cluding Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The Soviet Union has supplied
chemicals to Libya — which, in
turn, has transferred some of
these "precursor" substances
to Syria.
And Iraq, according to most

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