the Shays-Meehan Act, which would ban foreign and soft money contributions, rein in campaign advertisements posing as issue advocacy and increase the disclosure of political expenditures.

The bill passed the House in Sept. 1999 but was been stopped by a filibuster in the Senate.

Meehan says he and others are applying as much pressure as they possibly can to get the bill passed, but says it is unlikely that the Senate will act on it this year.

"[The] Republican leadership is opposed to it," he says. "They like the present system where basically unlimited amounts of money can be funneled to the political parties and candidates through soft money. They like the status quo."

Meehan himself came under fire for maintaining the status quo earlier this year by running for a fifth term, breaking a much-celebrated pledge he made in his initial campaign in 1992 to serve no more than four terms.

He easily defeated his two opponents in September's Democratic primary, however, and now says he made a mistake in making the promise.

"I was mistaken to think somehow that members self-limiting themselves would result in term limits being passed," Meehan says. "The people overwhelmingly think that they should choose, and I think the election results reflect that."