David Thomas: “I yield myself 1 minute to give an example of the kinds of things that we propose in the Thomas substitute that simply…”

“I yield myself 1 minute to give an example of the kinds of things that we propose in the Thomas substitute that simply have been overlooked for more than a quarter of a century. When one makes reports, there is no requirement to show secondary payments. In many campaign reports, they simply list their key campaign support committee, $50,000. We have no idea where that money has been spent, and there is no requirement under federal law to break it down. What we say we ought to do is to require record keeping and disclosure by political committees in terms of who got the actual payment: the secondary payers, the subcontractors. This is absolutely essential to have an understanding of the flow of money. They say they want to follow the money. They say they want to make sure everyone knows who pays whom. It simply is not done in Shays-Meehan. This is a long overdue change. It also requires post-election reports to include cumulative information on contributions and expenditures. Those are the kinds of things that will give people a true picture of who contributes and who spends. It is not in theirs; it is in ours.”