Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the hour is late and it has been a long day, but I frankly thought I would be here tonight talking about another bill, H.R. 4717. It has a long title, the Full and Fair Political Activity Disclosure Act of 2000, but this is not the case. As it turned out, it was not the right time, either. This is a fact, and we now move on to H.R. 4762, an entirely different bill. Furthermore, it is the way our democratic process works. One shoots as high as they possibly can and ends up with something the majority feels is the best practical solution at the time. Personally, I wanted to do two things. One is to get something done, which means produce the first piece of campaign reform legislation that will pass not only this House but also the Senate in years. Secondly, to make it bipartisan this bill, 4762, is the base McCain-Feingold-Lieberman bill with strong inputs from the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle). We changed the Senate sanction provision to apply 35 percent tax rate against nondisclosed amounts, and that is all. So I just have to feel that passing this bill on suspension will send a signal that, yes, that we can do something on campaign finance reform, just as the Senate did. This is not the end.…”