Christopher Shays: “The bottom line is this bill eliminates soft money, the unregulated money from individuals, corporations, labor unions…”

“The bottom line is this bill eliminates soft money, the unregulated money from individuals, corporations, labor unions, and other interest groups. It calls the sham issue ads what they are, campaign ads, which means to run them free speech, but have to have disclosure, and that is something that is not in the substitute offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Doolittle). He does not want the sham issue ads to be disclosed even though he says he is for disclosure. Mr. Chairman, the third thing it does is we require immediate disclosure on the Internet of expenditures, and we provide for stronger FEC enforcement; and then anything we have not dealt with in our bill, we deal with in the commission bill. It has been against the law since 1907 for corporations to contribute to campaigns. It has been against the law since 1947 for union dues money to be used in campaigns. It has been against the law since 1974 for foreign countries to contribute to our campaigns. But all three take place, and they take place through the absurdity of soft money and these sham issue ads.”