Victor Fazio: “as we have already adopted the Cox amendment that clarifies the law, this amendment is entirely superfluous and offered…”

“as we have already adopted the Cox amendment that clarifies the law, this amendment is entirely superfluous and offered only for political purposes. And it strikes me as highly hypocritical for any Member of this body who has been engaged in raising soft or hard money in the system we currently have in place to stand before his colleagues and a national audience and criticize the Vice President because he did something that has clearly under the law never been prosecuted. The Pendleton Act, over 100 years old now, has never ever been used to prosecute anyone for the solicitation of funds from an office. I think we now have a clear understanding of what is appropriate. But we could find the names of at least 3 sitting Republican senators who have admitted raising funds in their offices on the telephone. This is not a partisan issue. We are moving in the direction of reform. And for the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) to bring this amendment now is simply to try to imply that there is only one party or perhaps one individual that must alter behavior. We have all must do that. This administration, including the Vice President, has been out front in advocating campaign finance reform, the Shays-Meehan bill the centerpiece of that effort.”