John Yarmuth: “I thank my colleague for yielding. I rise to oppose the rule on this legislation, not necessarily because this is a bad…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding. I rise to oppose the rule on this legislation, not necessarily because this is a bad bill--I do think it is a vague solution in search of a nonexistent problem--but I oppose the rule for another reason, and that is because I thought that since we were going to bring this bill to the floor anyway, even though it is unnecessary, even though Chairman Wheeler of the FCC has said that the FCC does not intend to regulate rates on broadband, I thought maybe I would at least try to accomplish something productive and offer an amendment to solve a real problem that the American people are seeing in front of them every day right now. That is the problem of television ads, political ads, that do not truly identify their source. Under section 317 of the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC requires broadcasters to put on the ad the true identity of the people running the ad. This makes a lot of sense. The idea is that when you see somebody trying to influence your vote or to influence your attitude about a particular public issue, that you should understand who is actually trying to influence you. But because of dramatic changes in the way campaign laws are implemented and because of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, what has happened is that we now have ads run by organizations like Americans for Kittens and Puppies, and that doesn't do the American voter, the American consumer, any good.…”