Reform Groups Urge Chairman Durbin to Stave Off Attempts to Repeal or Defund Presidential Public Financing System

Reform Groups Urge Chairman Durbin to Stave Off Attempts to Repeal or Defund Presidential Public Financing System

Today reform groups asked Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, to fight efforts to terminate or defund the presidential public financing system. The letter praised Sen. Durbin’s leadership on public financing issues and asked that he continue to guard against efforts to do away with the system like those already introduced this year or that will likely come up going forward in the appropriations process.

The letter cites legislation introduced in the Senate as well as two measures already passed in the House that would end the longstanding and highly successful program that was created in the wake of the scandals the engulfed the Nixon Administration in the Watergate era.

The organizations signing the letter include the Campaign Legal Center, Americans for Campaign Reform, Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Democracy 21, League of Women Voters, People For the American Way, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG.