House supports campaign finance constitutional amendment
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The Massachusetts House on Wednesday voted to urge Congress to pass a constitutional amendment limiting private campaign contributions and super PAC spending.
The resolution filed Wednesday by House Judiciary Chairman John Fernandes calling on Congress to act was adopted on a 119 to 34 vote.
Echoing language used in the proposed federal constitutional amendment that Fernandes said was written by Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, the House resolution states in part, "nothing in the United States Constitution shall be construed to forbid Congress or the states from imposing reasonable content-neutral limitations on private campaign contributions or independent election expenditures, or from enacting systems of public campaign financing, including those designed to restrict the influence of private wealth by offsetting campaign spending or independent expenditures with increases public funding."
The federal amendment would also clearly allow Congress and states to implement public campaign-finance systems.
The vote came about a half hour after the recess of a state Constitutional Convention where lawmakers decided against taking action on two amendments to the state constitution that would have addressed similar issues.
"The real fix for this is a fix at the federal level, not at our state level, and so our resolution urges Congress to act on the federal resolution in order to move forward with an amendment at that level," Fernandes, a Milton Democrat, said during debate of the resolution.
The federal resolution, which would overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 decision involving Citizens United, was introduced in the U.S. House last June by California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff. The Citizens United decision led to an increase in political spending made super PACS and outside groups.
When the bill was introduced, Schiff said in a statement that his amendment "would allow Congress to set reasonable limits, and allow states to set up public financing for candidates, if they choose to do so."
An amendment offered by House Minority Leader Bradley Jones sought to replace the text of Fernandes' resolution with another campaign finance resolution adopted by the House in 2012.
Jones said the past resolution "speaks to some of the issues raised relevant to Citizens United and campaign finance, but does so in a fairer, more broad-based, even handed manner."
Jones' amendment was defeated on a 34 to 113 vote.
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