Steve Israel: “I rise as a very proud cosponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. It was one of the first bills that I…”

“I rise as a very proud cosponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. It was one of the first bills that I cosponsored in this House because it puts people first. Earlier this week, I had the privilege of standing with our colleagues, Senators McCain and Feingold and the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan), at the birthplace of one of America's truly great reformers, President Teddy Roosevelt. We stood together in a bipartisan call for campaign finance reform, united in an urgency to restore faith in our democracy. In his day, President Roosevelt said this: "One of the fundamental necessities in a representative government such as ours is to make certain that the men to whom they delegate their power shall serve the people by whom they are elected and not the special interests." Mr. Speaker, today is literally the moment of truth in this House on campaign finance reform. We can keep our promises for reform, or we can pretend to keep our promises. The only true reform is known by McCain-Feingold and Shays-Meehan. Let us pass that today.”