Wednesday in the House: Termination of taxpayer-funded campaigns

On Wednesday, the House will take up a rule and then an underlying bill that would terminate taxpayer-funded campaigns, the only remaining work left for the House before it adjourns for the week.

The House Rules Committee on Tuesday approved a modified open rule that allows for one hour of debate on H.R. 359. Under the rule (H.Res. 54), the House will consider all germane amendments to the bill and allow five minutes of debate on these amendments. The House will consider as many amendments as it can within a five-hour time limit (expectations are that the process will not take the full five hours).

To qualify for consideration, amendments must be printed in the Congressional Record, and several are expected to be printed by tomorrow morning.

Only one amendment has been printed in the Record so far. That amendment, from Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), would ensure that all money saved by ending taxpayer-funded campaigns is used only for the purpose of reducing the budget deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office said today that it expects H.R. 359 to save $617 million over 10 years.

Also today, the Obama administration said in a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) that it "strongly opposes" H.R. 359. "Its effect would be to expand the power of corporations and special interests in the Nation’s elections; to force many candidates into an endless cycle of fundraising at the expense of engagement with voters on the issues; and to place a premium on access to large donor or special interest support, narrowing the field of otherwise worthy candidates," the SAP said.

Interestingly, the SAP did not say Obama would veto H.R. 359 if it were to pass the House and Senate, although these statements are sometimes used to warn of a veto.