Sean Patrick Maloney: “I rise against this rule. The Republican National Committee ought to be sending roses this morning to the Republican…”

“I rise against this rule. The Republican National Committee ought to be sending roses this morning to the Republican leadership of the House. The $1.7 million in emergency funding requested by the Federal Election Commission to conduct investigations has somehow disappeared. The only nonpartisan group that should be looking into these alleged abuses has just lost the funding it needs to get the job done. On the other hand, the Republican-controlled Committee on Government Reform and Oversight just received $6 million to carry out its partisan probe. Now they have tied the hands of the only nonpartisan agency empowered to conduct an investigation and to find abusers. This is not their first stunt. Just last week the Committee on Appropriations actually granted the money, but tied it up by specifying it could only be used to buy computers, like the computers would just do the work themselves. Now the funding has just disappeared. First they give, then they limit, and now they take it away. I say to the Republican leadership, why are they doing this? Why are they taking the funding away from the one nonpartisan group empowered to conduct investigations? I urge a 'no' vote on this rule.”