WASHINGTON -- Indian gambling supporters Wednesday objected to efforts to close a campaign finance loophole that has allowed tribes to funnel millions of dollars into federal campaigns.

Under federal election law, individuals are limited to donations totaling $101,400 over a two-year election cycle to candidates and political committees.

But because tribes are considered sovereign, they are not bound by the $101,400 limit. Some tribes have donated millions of dollars a year, and almost all of them owned casinos.

Tribes contributed $25 million to candidates and committees from 2000 to 2005, according to Political MoneyLine, a nonpartisan campaign finance analyst.

Tribes are not required to form political action committees or report their contributions.

The tribal contributions are listed by the recipients.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said at a hearing Wednesday that the time has come to examine how and why tribes are treated differently under the federal election law.

"Certainly, when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was enacted in 1988, nobody anticipated that any tribe would make enough profit that it could donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigns," McCain said.

Ron Allen, treasurer of the National Congress of American Indians, told McCain that eliminating the exemption might disenfranchise tribes from the political process.

Allen expressed concern that American Indians were being targeted because of the scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who worked for several gaming tribes.

Before Abramoff was fired and pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to three felonies, he had five tribal clients whose campaign contributions averaged $1 million a year, according to The Washington Post.

"This is a lobbying scandal. This is not a tribal scandal," Allen said.

Democrats on the committee seemed reluctant to tinker with the exemption for tribes.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who was narrowly re-elected in 2002 largely because of support from tribes, said Indians should be consulted before any changes are made in the federal election law.

"There were very few tribes even indirectly involved in (the Abramoff scandal), and to the degree a few were, by large measure, they were victims," Johnson said.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, asked Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner whether less than one-third of 1 percent of all political contributions during the 2004 election came from Indians.

Toner said he could not confirm such numbers but acknowledged they were "in the ballpark."

"Assuming there's an abuse, it's not a tremendous one, is it?" Inouye asked.

Toner said that the federal election law regarding tribes is unclear and that his agency would welcome direction from Congress.

Toner and Robert Lenhard, vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission, agreed that requiring tribes to report their campaign contributions as political action committees do might be a good idea.

McCain has said he wants the Senate committee to vote by the end of the month on proposed changes to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

But after Wednesday's hearing, McCain said he does not know whether such changes will address the exemption for tribes in the federal election law.

"We haven't even decided what's the best solution yet," the senator said. "We'll try to get consensus (with the tribes)."