Udall, Coburn Introduce Bill to End Taxpayer Subsidies for Party Conventions
Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Okla.) introduced a bill today to prohibit the use of Presidential Election Campaign Funds (PECF) for future political party nominating conventions.
Udall and Coburn introduced similar legislation (S. 3257) last year to abolish taxpayer money from being used for conventions. The legislation passed with a vote of 95 to 4 in the Senate as an amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill. The U.S. House of Representatives passed similar legislation last year by a vote of 310-95 to end future federal funding of political conventions. However, neither piece of legislation was signed into law by the end of the 2012.
"Over the past several decades, political party nominating conventions have become lavish and elaborate celebrations devoted to partisanship. At a time when we’re working to trim all unnecessary spending, it is a no-brainer for taxpayers to stop footing part of the bill for these large, expensive events, " Udall said. "The Senate passed this common-sense legislation by a broad bipartisan margin last year and the House of Representatives passed a similar bill, too, last year. This legislation is but one down payment on some of the larger decisions Congress will have to make to show that it is serious about fiscal discipline."
"Congress has tough decisions on deck that must be made in order to rein in our unsustainable debt and deficit, and this is one bipartisan step forward in right direction. Taxpayers should not foot the bill for events that are solely parties for polarized partisanship," Dr. Coburn said. "With this common-sense legislation receiving previous bipartisan support and passage in both houses of Congress, I am hopeful members will act again to ensure the practice of subsidizing extravagant party conventions with taxpayer dollars is ended in the new Congress."