Sean Patrick Maloney: “Mr. Speaker, last night the Republican leadership ruled the bipartisan amendment I offered with the gentleman from…”

“Mr. Speaker, last night the Republican leadership ruled the bipartisan amendment I offered with the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays], the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Meehan], and the gentlewoman from New Jersey [Mrs. Roukema] to restore the Federal Election Commission funding and to unfence this money so it could be used for investigations out of order because the chairman said it was not an emergency. But what is more an emergency than restoring the faith of the American people in the election process? How can we restore credibility in our elections process when this same body, under Republican leadership, votes $12 to $15 million, including a slush fund, to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight for a partisan investigation, and then, on the other hand, turns around and denies the funding to the only nonpartisan, independent agency that is actually empowered to investigate election abuses, find election abuses. The Federal Elections Commission has come forward and said that they need this money to get the job done for the abuses before them. This money has been denied, yet this body has voted to give $12 to $15 million to a partisan investigation. Mr. Speaker, I just would like to appeal to both sides of the aisle to vote against this rule until we do the right thing, which is fund the independent agency that is empowered to investigate.”