The DISCLOSE Act came up for a cloture vote again in the Senate on Thursday, September 23. The Democrats’ campaign finance reform bill has been on life support since it failed a prior cloture vote in July. The newest vote, which failed on party lines, 59-39, was seen as a last-ditch attempt to get a top priority through the Congress.

The Democrats, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), had promised to bring the bill to a vote after the August recess, when they said that Republicans’ suspicions about the timing of the bill being intended to benefit Democratic incumbents in November’s mid-terms would be mitigated. However, Democrats were unable to sway moderate Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Scott Brown (Massachusetts) into supporting the legislation.

President Obama’s office released a statement saying the President was “deeply disappointed” by the bill’s failure to pass. The President has been pushing for the “fix” to the Citizens United decision since the House passed their version of DISCLOSE in June.

CQ Politics reports that it may be a possibility that the legislation will keep coming back – “but it is unclear whether Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will try to take the issue up again during a lame-duck session.

The CQ Politics article is here:   “Senate GOP Again Blocks DISCLOSE”. Read more about the DISCLOSE Act here, and at Eric Brown’s site (for news round-ups).