Sam Farr: “I rise to point out that last night we had quite a victory in this House on campaign finance reform. We had a victory on…”

“I rise to point out that last night we had quite a victory in this House on campaign finance reform. We had a victory on an amendment, a small step. It is not the answer. The answer is comprehensive campaign reform. People fail to realize that in the elections last time, running for this seat in the House of Representatives cost over half a billion dollars for all the candidates. That was what was reported, because there are a lot of ads done by independent agencies that are not reported. So, Mr. Speaker, if we are going to have meaningful campaign finance reform, we are going to have to put limits on what candidates can spend. That amendment is up today. We are going to have a great debate and we are going to see whether this House can live up to what it has done in 1991, 1992 and 1993, when we passed comprehensive campaign reform that really put limits on campaigns. Shays-Meehan is a step in the right direction, but it is not the answer.”