whoever uses the money has to be given the money in the form of a check, so that if you are going to haul voters, for example, a check would be written to you. You could then not give voters or anybody else cash. Obviously if you wanted to…

I again rise to talk about the importance of fairness. In this country we have given the United States Postal Service a monopoly on delivery of mail and universal mail service. None of us disagree with that. In fact, all of us appreciate…

I am offering this amendment mostly as a placeholder in order to allow the conference to reinsert the language that was stripped as a result of a point of order. The fact is that every 5 years the Universal Postal Union meets to negotiate…

what I would say is that there are different ways for different people to influence elections. The fact is, soft money, I believe, is a very good form of support for our parties. If GE gives $100,000 to the Republican Party, whatever…

Mr. Chairman, we do not put nonseverability because those of us that voted for that tax cut believed each one of those cuts stood on their own merit, had a merit of their own. For those of us that are asking for support for the…

This is so important, and I wish we could do this all day and all night and every day because frankly this is a good debate to be having. It is one of the few debates in the long time I have been here that we are actually having, and…

I do not take, and never have, a penny of tobacco money, and yet the tobacco bill over on the Senate side is simply too big. There are reasons that people oppose it. I think that that is the sort of discussion that ruins political…

I will just point out that we all know who gives to the parties because it is reported. But if the XYZ Corporation thinks they want to influence an election, now they can give it to an independent organization, which is the part of the…

I believe that this is a mostly honest system. I believe that there are those people that cannot resist money in return for influence, but I have not seen many colleagues on this floor that are in that position, and I believe most of our…

I was just wondering if the gentleman can name, for example, five contributors that have given $100,000 to his party. I could not name that.

If my colleagues think this is overreaching and what I think is a repressive piece of legislation will pass constitutional muster, well, then fine. Then they will have no problem with an amendment that will take the whole bill down if just…

I cannot forgive them. I tell you, in my opinion, this is an example of death. That is why I support the death penalty. This is inexcusable what those people did. But I also want to point out to our colleagues this is horrible, it has got…

Mr. Speaker, I also welcome this opportunity, however it is a very, very sad time for this country in light of the very brutal slaying of James Byrd. It is important and it is appropriate that this House pass this resolution and state…

Mr. Chairman, I am glad to have an opportunity to speak in opposition to this constitutional amendment. This debate reminds us of just what this country is. It is a country full of people that have their own opinion. That is what has made…

what I am proud to do is go from individual to individual, many people who have never given to campaigns before, and say this is what I believe; can you help me? My husband and I have raised six kids. We could not possibly fund an election…

In my government class in my junior year of high school, my teacher taught my class about civic duty. We studied the Constitution, and I learned then that that document represents a contract between the U.S. government and us, its…

I know what it is like to worry every day about how your child is doing in school. It must be terrible if your child is trapped in a school that is unsafe and unworkable; your daughter's sleepless nights become your own sleepless nights…

I rise and am pleased to rise in support of the Reading Excellence Act. While we are all concerned about new Federal programs, the budget agreement set aside $260 million for a new literacy program. What we could have had is another…

I want to also thank the subcommittee chair and the ranking member and the other members of the subcommittee that have worked so hard on this bill. Many of the benefits of this bill, the appropriations that we have made, have been…

I appeal to my colleagues as a mother to support this bill. I think that we have demonstrated our commitment to education over many, many years of contributions, both State and local and Federal. In fact, we have 729 programs that…

Today there are several Washington, DC schools that are still closed due to construction problems. Earlier this year there were many that were delayed most of September because of construction problems. We need to not prescribe Davis-Bacon…

public schools are always going to be important in this country. They have been important across the country and they are important right here in Washington, DC. But our public schools are broken in this city. We have tried a lot of things…

I rise today to thank the American Tort Reform Association for setting aside last week as the National Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week to remind the American public of the problems and the promise of our legal system. Last week served as a…

Mr. Chairman, recognizing that the provisions of the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement have been struck, I do want to bring to the attention of the House that the language that was struck was passed in its entirety by the Senate and that…

I am from Kentucky, which I believe is the only State that enacted whole school reform statewide, and I have talked for many, many times about the benefits of whole school reform. But I do not believe that it is something that we can enact…