Christopher Shays

I rise in support of a number of provisions included in the Conference Report to H.R. 1000, the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment & Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21), including Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) and a study on…

I rise in support of S. 376, the Communications Satellite Competition and Privatization Act, and commend House Commerce Chairman Tom Bliley and Congressman Edward Markey for their work in crafting this important legislation. This bill is…

The reason you do not have a problem is it is voluntary, the members can contribute or may not but it is not taken out of their union dues money.

The challenge we had, there were others who came from districts that were very poor and had to reach out across district lines who were supporting the legislation where we were able to build consensus with our colleagues on both sides of…

The point I need to make is issue ads can continue as campaign ads. It is a real surprise to me that people said, if we do not allow an issue ad, we have deprived people of their voice. No. They can still advertise. If one is a strong…

I would be derelict in my duty if I did not acknowledge that the gentleman too has played a major effort in this, and in many cases more than I have in the gentleman's constant effort and his own personal experiences in dealing with the…

The difference between soft and hard money, soft money is unlimited, hard money is limited campaign contributions. The Supreme Court said clearly, they just affirmed it in the Missouri case just a few weeks ago, it is constitutional and…

I would love to just talk about the actual numbers. So you and I do agree that the first issue should not be does it help or hurt one party; it should be what is in the best interests of our country to save our democracy from these…

Yes. And the bill that we passed in the House made it a proactive responsibility of the union to notify their members that if they did not want their union dues money to be going to any campaign through the soft money, that loophole, and…

I have a personal example to respond to your question. The point that I first want to make is, paycheck protection, I voted for it. But paycheck protection would allow a union member to use his union dues in campaigns when the 1947 law…

I am going to hope the gentleman will be patient with one aspect of this. Congress last year passed in early September campaign finance reform. It was a bipartisan effort. It dealt with four basic issues. First, it banned soft money…

I am torn by this feeling that I want to kind of clarify and be a little more precise between soft money and what I call sham issue ads which are really good campaign ads, much like you might want to correct me in some of the intricacies…

The current law is it is illegal, and I have a hard time understanding why my side of the aisle wants to legalize a process where if we are just talking now as Republicans who are being criticized for somehow allowing unions to do…

So, Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is, we would like to restore some sanity to this process and a majority of Members in this House want to, a majority in the Senate want to, but not enough to end debate and to have an up or down vote on…

But just comparing 1996, what my side of the aisle does not want people to know, those people who oppose campaign finance reform, in hard money, this blows my mind, Democrats raised $221 million in hard money contributions.

Let me if I could just say that the significance is that soft money creates a gigantic loophole. It allows corporate treasury money to be contributed, whereas the law in 1974, the individual contribution limits and the political action…

If it comes from the political parties, if it comes from some leadership PAC, it is probably soft money. But the union dues money and all the special interests, they do it primarily through the sham-issue ads.

They can set up a political action committee and they can advertise and their members can also contribute as individuals. But the 1974 law made it illegal for foreign individuals, not citizens of the United States, not residents of the…

And the Beck decision was this: it was a decision that if you were not a member of a union, you did not have to have your money go for political purposes. It was not a decision that said if you were a member of a union that you did not…

Exactly, Mr. Speaker. The key is that if one calls it a campaign ad, how goes that corporate treasury money and the union dues money, which is, it seems to me, what both sides of the aisle should want to have happen.

As we debate this issue, there are so many responses one can make as to why someone would support legislation or not. Actually, there is a part of me that thinks that makes sense and the gentleman does not. It is a wonderful illustration…

Tax cuts are for those who pay taxes. For the last 3 years, we have gotten our country's financial house in order and eliminated the deficit. Since last year, we no longer spend our social security trust fund money. We are looking at…

In our legislation we do nothing to impact voter guides at all. But because there was a concern that we might, we put in language that makes it a certainty that voter guides are allowed. They do not come under the campaign law at all. All…

I just appreciate what he and his fellow freshmen have done. They have had an important role in helping us. They could have an even more important role instead of giving the Senate an excuse to vote against campaign finance reform if their…

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…