Bart Stupak: “as a number of individuals have mentioned this morning, today is Earth Day. I have some very important legislation, the…”

“as a number of individuals have mentioned this morning, today is Earth Day. I have some very important legislation, the leaking underground storage tank bill, that I would like to address. But as I was sitting there waiting for my turn, I could not help but notice that two of our Democratic colleagues got up and signed the discharge petition for campaign finance reform. The Democratic Party is leading a fight for campaign finance reform, true campaign finance reform. What the discharge petition says, if we can get 218 signatures on it, is to bring forth our petition, which says let us have a full, fair, open debate on campaign finance. It does not endorse any proposal but lets us have a true, fair, open debate on campaign finance. Unfortunately, the Republican Party leadership will not allow this to happen, so we have to use the discharge petition. So with two more Members signing today, we are now up to 204. We need 14 more Members to come down, have the courage to come down to the well of this floor and sign our discharge petition. Mr. Speaker, the Democratic Party is leading the fight to have campaign finance reform, without endorsing any proposal. Let us do campaign finance reform. Sign the discharge petition.”