Lois Capps: “I am pleased that this day has finally come. In the face of many roadblocks, we are now debating the bipartisan…”

“I am pleased that this day has finally come. In the face of many roadblocks, we are now debating the bipartisan Shays-Meehan bill. I commend my colleagues the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan) for their extraordinary perseverance on this issue. Mr. Chairman, as someone who has run in three elections in the past six months, I can tell my colleagues that the American people are crying out for us to clean up our political system. The bill before us will close the biggest loopholes in that system: soft money and sham issue advocacy ads. In my recent special election which was strongly contested, my conservative Republican opponent and I did not agree on very much, but we did agree that in our race these ads flooded the airwaves with very misleading information. And although the ads clearly targeted one of us, either of us, both of us for election or defeat, there was no disclosure and no limits on how they were funded. Mr. Chairman, let us not lose sight of the dramatic shift that is occurring out there in the campaigns. The voters are becoming pawns in battles between powerful outside interest groups. We need to pass the bipartisan Shays-Meehan bill and bring the political process back to the people. If we fail, our elections will only get more expensive and more dominated by special interest, and the cynicism and outrage of the American people will increase.”