Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this very modest amendment by Congresswoman Eshoo. In the words of the young people, ``This is a no-brainer.'' This should be an easy call for Members on both sides of the aisle--people who believe in fairness and democracy and transparency. It should be an easy call for us to say, You know what? We know that there may be Federal contractors out there who are getting billions of dollars in benefits from Federal contracts, but they should disclose the money that they are spending on campaigns. The American people expect that. I wasn't a supporter of the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, but that's not what this is about, Mr. Chairman. This is not about a protected First Amendment right. I read the decision in Citizens United. What I took away from it is that, in fact, the one area in which the Congress does have some authority is in regulating the disclosure of expenditures in campaigns. The Court was very explicit about that. I know there have been a number of statements here on the floor that suggest otherwise, that suggest that this very fine and modest amendment would, in fact, impede our constitutional rights, but that's not what the Court said at all. What the Court said is that it's important and that Congress has the authority to regulate the disclosure of corporate expenditures on campaigns. This amendment does exactly that. It says, You know what?…”