"The unlimited

inflow of soft-money must be stemmed. Ironically, the Shays-Meehan bill

does not stop soft money, only redirects it," he added. "Furthermore,

the Shays-Meehan bill does not go into effect until after the November

elections. If true reform is desired, then we should ban all soft money,

and ban it today, not leave millions of dollars of soft money in the bank

accounts of the political parties to spend on the upcoming November elections."

Collins said

the three major Democrat fund-raising committees have already raised 53.5

percent of their money in 2001 through large, unlimited donations from

wealthy individuals, labor unions and corporations. He added that Republican

fund-raising committees took in 35 percent of total donations in the form

of soft money.

"There

is a major advantage to the Democrats in this loophole," he said.

"The issue is not whether we need finance reform, it is that we need

a level playing field so that all candidates are treated equally in the

process."

Collins said

he supported an amendment offered by House Majority Leader Richard Armey,

R-texas, that would have moved the effective date of the legislation to

Feb. 14 and require all soft money to be returned to donors, "which,"

he said, "ironically, will be opposed by the architects of the Shays-Meehan

bill."