Political Quotes

“Another bad amendment to a bad bill. This amendment suffers from the same defects as the underlying bill. It continues the same regrettable trend by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle of trying to silence speakers they don't like. Portions of this bill are so radical that, as we have said several times already, even the ACLU came out today and asked Members of this body not to vote for it. The ACLU said H.R. 1 would unconstitutionally burden free speech and associational rights. This amendment is more of the same tactics that caused the ACLU to oppose the underlying legislation. As I said, a bad amendment to a bad bill. Put that all together, it makes everything worse. The Lobbying Disclosure Act, which this amendment would seek to change, is about disclosure and increasing public awareness, not preventing people from undertaking a lawful profession. The decision of whether to undertake representation of a client is a personal and professional matter, not one for central government planning. What my friends on the other side of the aisle seem not to understand is the answer to speech that they view as undesirable is more speech. It is called the First Amendment. It is called debate. The Federal Government should not and cannot constitutionally prevent the people it does not like from speaking. And we know it has tried. Just a few years ago, it did it.…”