Senate: No taxpayer cash for future conventions

The Senate voted by a lopsided margin Thursday to deny future national political conventions millions in federal tax dollars.

If the House goes along, the Democratic and Republican parties in 2016 and beyond would not be able to look to Washington for cash to subsidize staff salaries, catering costs, fancy decorations and other convention-related expenses.

Even if it passes both houses and is signed by the president, it would not affect the Democrats' September gathering in Charlotte or the Republican convention a month earlier in Tampa.

POLITICO reported that Thursday's 95-4 vote was on a bipartisan measure adopted as an amendment to the farm bill. It was proposed by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Mark Udall, D-Colo.

This year, the Charlotte-based Democratic National Convention Committee and its GOP counterpart in Tampa each got about $18.3 million for their respective conventions.

That money, POLITICO reported, came from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, a program bankrolled by about 33 million taxpayers who each year voluntarily check a box on their tax forms directing $3 to the fund, which was established in the 1970s.

"Ninety-nine percent of the American public has no idea when they check the box that we're going to take actual American taxpayer dollars and subsidize party conventions for candidates who have already been decided," Coburn told his colleagues.

Udall cast the vote as a sign that Congress is serious about cutting unnecessary spending: "This is a way to get our fiscal house in order. It's a small step, but it's an important step."

POLITICO reported that the amendment would not affect federal money that goes to cities hosting the conventions to help pay for stepped-up security. Congress has already appropriated $100 million for that.

To read the complete story: http://www.politico.com/.