Jim Baird: “all the American people really need to know about this lobbying bill is that our friends on the Republican side of the…”

“all the American people really need to know about this lobbying bill is that our friends on the Republican side of the aisle want to clean up Congress the way teenagers want to clean up their bedrooms. Instead of socks and sweatshirts and whatnot strewn about the floor, we have lobbyists' money and special gifts and favors. And instead of really taking it out and putting it out of the body of this Congress, what they want to do is sweep it under of the bed, so when the public's attention is not looking, we can just call it right back out. This is a sham bill. It is not a real reform. Let me point out two things that they did not address. This reform bill does nothing to give Members of Congress more time to read legislation. We offered an amendment that would have allowed 72 hours for Members and the public to read legislation. It was not even allowed to be brought up for debate. This amendment does not do anything to ban insider trading by Members of Congress or lobbyists. It is not illegal currently for Members of Congress to share information with lobbyists who then share it with investors who can make a fortune on this. It is illegal in the private sector, but the leadership on the Republican side refused to make it illegal for Members of this Congress. We are cleaning up Congress the way teenagers clean up their bedroom, and the result will be the same mess we started with.”