Frank Pallone: “the problem is that if we do not do that, if we do not do what is being proposed with McCain-Feingold, then this whole…”

“the problem is that if we do not do that, if we do not do what is being proposed with McCain-Feingold, then this whole system of campaign laws that were basically put in place as a reform to the Watergate years and the way campaigns were financed prior to Watergate, we might as well throw out the window, because what is happening increasingly, the actual money that comes in under the traditional laws is becoming less and less of what is spent on a campaign, and all of these other expenditures that are outside the law do not come under the FEC and the FEC does not have authority to enforce or investigate are now the norm. The other thing that the gentleman mentioned in McCain-Feingold is the effort to beef up the FEC. The bottom line is that the Federal Election Commission now is like a toothless tiger. They do not have the money, the investigators, or the power to go after or look at a lot of these expenditures, because they do not come under the law that they have jurisdiction over. So we have got to change it. Otherwise, we have no system. We just have a free-for-all out there.”