Congressman Zach Wamp (R-TN) notes legislation that would eliminate duplicative notification processes for State and local candidates passed the U.S. Senate late last night by unanimous consent. The measure passed the U.S. House of Representatives by unanimous consent on Wednesday.

"As a true believer in campaign finance reform, I believe that we have taken necessary steps in recent years to remove the influence of unlimited, unregulated money from our political system. However, our attempts to restrict the activities of "stealth PACs" unfortunately placed our state and local officials and political parties under the same 527 federal reporting requirements as these PACs," said Wamp. "We unintentionally created a mountain of paperwork that is not only duplicative of state reporting requirements, but is often irrelevant. This recently-passed legislation will help reduce the amount of paper work that is expected of state and local candidates without sacrificing essential disclosures," added Wamp.

This bipartisan legislation also will ensure that the 527 stealth PAC disclosure law passed in 2000 does not unnecessarily burden groups that do not influence federal elections or political committees that already report to the Federal Election Commission.