Asa Hutchinson: “I am for campaign finance reform. I voted for cloture on the McCain-Feingold bill, and I would do it again. I think this…”

“I am for campaign finance reform. I voted for cloture on the McCain-Feingold bill, and I would do it again. I think this has merit, but it is the wrong time, the wrong vehicle, the wrong scope. If this is the U.S.S. Warner, this is the torpedo that could sink it. That is wrong. There are too many important things in the bill to destroy it. There is health care for our military retirees forever. By a 96-1 vote yesterday, we put that in. There are retail and mail order pharmacy prescription benefits. I don't want to face those military retirees and say: We thought this was a good vehicle for campaign finance reform. There is the thrift savings plan, TRICARE remote, a 3.7-percent pay raise. It is wrong to kill this bill for a nongermane campaign finance provision. There will be an opportunity. We should do it, but we should not put a nongermane provision such as this on an important DOD bill.”