Mike Levin: “This is an unprecedented removal of jurisdiction from a Senate committee that is seeking to exercise what is within its…”

“This is an unprecedented removal of jurisdiction from a Senate committee that is seeking to exercise what is within its jurisdiction by Senate rule, by Senate resolution--Senate Resolution 54--which specifically refers to improper and corrupt practices, and by precedent. Now, why are we doing this? Why is the majority about to tell a committee that has jurisdiction to investigate that it may not do so? The answer is, the fear that there will be momentum given to campaign finance reform. That is the issue. It is that fear that so terrorizes, apparently, some in the majority of this body that if there is an investigation carried out by the Governmental Affairs Committee, which it now has jurisdiction to carry out, it will somehow or other give momentum to something which, apparently, a majority of the majority does not want. But this is unprecedented, and we are skating now out on a pond which this Senate, I don't believe, has done before.”