George Miller: “if all things go according to plan, in several hours the Republican leadership in the United States Senate will succeed…”

“if all things go according to plan, in several hours the Republican leadership in the United States Senate will succeed in killing campaign finance reform in that body. This will be a tragedy of enormous proportions. Regardless of what action the Senate takes, however, the House must be allowed to vote on campaign finance reform this spring. This Speaker has pledged that we will. Currently, it is still on the schedule. I hope that defeat in the Senate will not mean that that will lessen the appetite for our leadership to bring this to the floor. The House should be allowed to debate, to offer amendments and to have a free and open discussion of how we reform the system that finances our elections. Campaign finance reform is crucial not only to the democratic process in this House but it is crucial to all Americans. Because it is the lack of campaign finance reform that continues to allow vast amounts of money from industries to come into the Congress, to distort the outcomes of the democratic process and America's consumers to pay at the marketplace. They pay in higher pharmaceutical prices and drug prices because of campaign contributions in the extensions of patents. They pay higher cable rates because of campaign contributions. They see that the effort to reform HMOs, managed care practices in this country that the public finds unacceptable, are now being thwarted by a concerted campaign effort by the National Association of Manufacturers.”