On June 23, Rep. Robert Ney (R-OH), chair of the House Administration Committee, sent a letter to Reps. Martin Meehan (D-MA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) informing them he intends to schedule their proposed legislation, H.R. 513, the 527 Reform Act, for committee consideration. Ney also said that, although he supports a competing 527 bill, he will vote to send the Shays-Meehan proposal to the floor. Ney prefers H.R. 1316, the 527 Fairness Act, introduced in March by Reps. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Al Wynn (D-MD). Ney believes that the Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) went too far in regulating the fundraising and coordinating capabilities of the national political parties, state parties and committees. At a June 23 debate sponsored by the Campaign Finance Institute, Wynn called the 527 Fairness Act "philosophically a different take on the regulation of 527 organizations than the Shays-Meehan bill." While Shays-Meehan strives to heavily regulate the independent 527 organizations, Pence-Wynn does not impose contribution limits and other regulations on them. Instead, it eliminates aggregate limits on how much money individuals can give to influence federal elections, removing the choice between contributing to parties, candidates and other groups. The Pence-Wynn bill also allows state and local party organizations to spend unlimited funds on voter registration drives (GOTV) and sample ballots. At the debate both Wynn and Cleta Mitchell, an attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP who helped author the Pence-Wynn bill, advocated for allowing donors to contribute funds into the hard money system where it is regulated and documented, and allowing 527 groups to continue with their work unhindered. Shays and Trevor Potter, of the Campaign Legal Center, disagreed. Shays said that the point of BCRA was to take legislators out of the game of raising money. Although BCRA did this in the 2004 election, he is concerned about millionaires that gave large donations to independent 527 groups. The drive to regulate independent 527 organizations appears to come from a desire by some members of Congress to suppress the ability of those organizations to run advertisements against candidates. Shays, in response to a question, took exception to a comment that 527 groups did much needed GOTV work. He responded that the independent 527s primarily ran attack ads. Both proponents and opponents of the competing 527 bills are concerned that the two bills will be melded together in a House-Senate conference, creating a situation which greatly undermines BCRA and restricts the First Amendment rights of nonprofit organizations to participate in the political process.