George Miller: “I rise in support of the Tierney amendment for clean campaigns. I want to commend the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr.…”

“I rise in support of the Tierney amendment for clean campaigns. I want to commend the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) who is here on the floor this morning and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan) for all of their efforts to pass the Shays-Meehan bill. It is a historic step in campaign finance reform, it is a historic step for this House to pass it and hopefully in September the Senate will find the courage to do the same and the President will sign that bill. But even after the signing of that bill and that historic reform, we are still left with the system that requires the addiction of politicians to special interest money. We are still left with the system where Members of the House of Representatives and Members of the Senate are required every day to go to the Republican headquarters or to the Democratic headquarters and get on the phone and call people they do not know who represent special interests and ask them for $1,000 or $5,000 to fund their campaigns, then come back here when the bell sounds for a vote and vote for or against those very same parties. Nobody in America believes that that is a pure system. Nobody in America believes that that is a system without conflicts of interest. And nobody in America believes that that is a system that is not corroding and not corrupting the democratic principles of the House of Representatives and of the United States Senate of this country. That is why we have got to take the next step.…”