Sean Patrick Maloney: “I rise in opposition to my own bill. As one of the principal sponsors of the commission bill, I really am asking all of…”

“I rise in opposition to my own bill. As one of the principal sponsors of the commission bill, I really am asking all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against the bill, or to vote ``present,'' because it is now in competition with the Shays-Meehan bill, a real reform bill that will accomplish many of the things that many of us wanted to accomplish through a commission bill. First of all, I would like to thank all of my colleagues who worked very hard on this legislation, particularly the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), who is a leader not only on campaign finance, but so many important issues before this body. He has often said that the best legislation is bipartisan, and we had a sincere bipartisan effort. I also thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. White), the gentleman from California (Mr. Horn), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks) for all their hard work and commitment. But what has happened with the way the rule is in place, the prospects for passage of Shays-Meehan is weakened with each competing vote. And now the commission bill is in competition with Shays-Meehan. I have always called the commission bill a fall-back position, one that we would go to if we could not achieve a vote in this Congress on meaningful reform. But Shays-Meehan is a strong vehicle for change. It addresses two of the greatest abuses. It bans soft money and brings into accountability the so-called independent expenditure groups.”