Asa Hutchinson: “I appreciate the answer, but if I could focus on the similarity of the gentleman's bill with the freshmen's bill, you…”

“I appreciate the answer, but if I could focus on the similarity of the gentleman's bill with the freshmen's bill, you made a decision in your bill that you should ban soft money to the Federal political parties, but not ban it to the state parties. I think that is exactly the right approach, and if you could take that out of there and build a proposal around there, I think that is very helpful. That is quite in contrast to the Shays-Meehan approach that, in my judgment, would federalize the state election process by saying that the states could not utilize money that is lawful in that state for get-out-the-vote efforts for their legislative candidates or for their gubernatorial candidates. So I compliment the gentleman for recognizing that distinction and recognizing the role of the states. I think the gentleman has done a very, very effective job on that particular point. I mentioned the fact, and, again, this is a very well-intentioned proposal and I apologize if I misstated it in any fashion, and it is going to have a good vote today I would anticipate, but I think we have to look at what we are trying to accomplish, which is signing reform into law.”