The Online Explainers take your question on the investigation.
The NewsHour's coverage of the Congressional Investigation.
The inside stories on the political fight behind the public investigation.
The investigation is big news in Washington, but how's it playing around the country.
A closer look at the issues really under scrutiny by the Congress.
The single issue that has become intimately tied to efforts to investigate past electoral indescretions is the effort to reform the current laws governing the way campaigns are financed. As more and more revelations regarding soft money donations and potential abuses of the current law hit the newspapers, more lawmakers and public interest groups have called for sweeping changes to the finance laws.
In the past few months, public opinion polls have indicated that a vast majority of the public favor fundamental changes to the current laws. But on Capitol Hill, campaign finance reform has remained a backburner issue. Last year, the Senate nearly came to a vote on the proposed McCain-Feingold campaign reform act, but a last-minute threatened filibuster killed the bill. This year a group of twelve House freshmen worked for months to develop a bipartisan proposal, but just prior to its introduction several GOP leaders urged their freshmen on the panel to stop work on the proposal. The proposal now will only bear the sponsorship of a few GOP members and faces significant opposition from the House leadership.
Here is a look at the stories that have focused on reforming the campaign finance law from the past year:
- The Senate fails to end debate over the McCain/Feingold bill -- October 7, 1997
- The Senate begins debate -- September 26, 1997
- Democrats threaten to shut down the Senate if there is no campaign finance reform debate -- September 23, 1997
- A look back at one of the 1988 debate over campaign finance reform -- July 16, 1997
- One possible reform being discussed is the banning of so-called soft money -- June 12, 1997
- In the last part of his special report, Hedrick Smith reports on one state's efforts to clean up their system -- March 26, 1997
- Part Two of Hedrick Smith's report looks at the influence of Political Action Committees -- March 25, 1997
- In Part One of Hedrick Smith's special report, he focuses on the growing campaign finance scandal -- March 24, 1997
- The NewsHour historians discuss money, politics and reform -- March 4, 1997
- Three members of Congress talk about reforming the campaign finance system -- November 28, 1996
- Campaign Finance Reform -- October 18, 1996
- House and Senate Leaders discuss campaign reform during DEBATE NIGHT -- September 29, 1996
- Shields & Gigot discuss the death of McCain-Feingold -- June 28, 1996
- Ellen Miller discusses efforts to reform campaign finance -- June 28, 1996
- The Senate debate McCain-Feingold proposal -- June 24, 1996
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