Tom Udall

Thank you very much, Chairman King, for holding this very, very important hearing on our democracy.

What DISCLOSE is about is the basic core principle of the voters knowing where the money is coming from.

This is not about free speech, and the American people know it.

The American people deserve to know who is spending all this money to influence their vote.

It is a broken system based on a flawed premise that spending money on elections is the same thing as free speech.

I really appreciate your statement that we are going to have a vote this year on a constitutional amendment. I think it is about time.

Billionaires may keep spending, but they cannot keep hiding.

This is a huge amount of money flooding into the system, and I think it corrupts the system.

The unfortunate thing about the Citizens United ruling, in my opinion, is that we have now... reached the point with that ruling that corporate treasuries are now in play in terms of campaign finance.

Fundamentally, the Republican Commissioners seem not to believe in the campaign finance laws that Congress has passed and that they are bound to enforce.

Campaign finance reform historically has been a bipartisan issue. I hope it will be again.

The Supreme Court laid the groundwork for this broken system in 1976 with Buckley v. Valeo.

I strongly urge both nominees to work diligently to restore the role of the Federal Election Commission as a fully functioning independent Federal watchdog for the nation's campaign finance laws.

I believe one important step is to have a functioning FEC where all six seats are filled with Commissioners in terms that have not expired.

I do not think we can truly fix this broken system until we undo that false premise.

Thank you both very much, and we look forward to you sorting out this dysfunctional FEC.

Comprehensive campaign finance reform is crucial to our democracy, but at the very least, we need to make sure that the FEC is enforcing the laws that are on the books.

I wish to tell the Senator how much all of the Senators on this issue appreciate the chairwoman's hard work. I think we need to stay focused. What happens with these counties is they wish to know early on whether the money is coming and…

That is exactly my perspective. In these counties, the programs run out. The counties have planned on this money because they have been getting it year after year, and we have to find a way to do this. I wish to applaud Chairwoman…

No. The program which has been in place a very long time has expired. We have run out of money. These counties need to be able to plan for their projects. So that is where we are.

The Senator is absolutely correct. In some of our counties, 70 percent of the land in the county is Federal Government land. So what happens, as the chair pointed out, is the Federal Government says because that cannot be developed and it…

We're going to be working, I know, to do what's right to maintain our nuclear posture, but also keep control of costs.

I think, first of all, I should say that as DCM in Guatemala from 2009 to 2011 I had the opportunity to work with many that are in the current government now.

I would, if confirmed, want to consult with both the Commissioner and with the President to make sure that all of the important issues are taken into account before a decision is made on extending that mandate.

I think you and I violently agree.