Christopher Shays: “Mr. Chairman, I would say my head is spinning. The professor from California got very animated when he talked about this…”

“Mr. Chairman, I would say my head is spinning. The professor from California got very animated when he talked about this amendment, but he called it like it is. He loves certain aspects of this amendment, but he does know that it would cause tremendous harm to a coalition of Members who all had to give up certain things that they wanted for a common good, and that was to ban soft money, the unlimited sums that individuals, corporations, labor unions and other interest groups give to the political parties, that then get funneled right back to the candidate and make a mockery of our campaign laws. We came to a compromise so we could recognize sham issue ads for what they truly are, campaign ads, and that means when it is a campaign ad, you follow the campaign rules. It means you cannot use corporate money, it means you cannot use labor dues. It meanings you have to disclose. We codified the Supreme Court decision on Beck, which said that if a member of a union seeks to leave the union, that they do not have to have their agency fee which they are required by law to provide, that it should not include, if they choose not to, to have their agency fee include a political payment. Therefore, they pay a little less than the union dues. We improve FEC disclosure and enforcement significantly, because we sought to come to a common ground between Republicans and Democrats, those who want campaign finance reform.”