Arlen Specter: “I returned to this issue with Attorney General Reno when she came in for an oversight hearing on July 15 of this year…”

“I returned to this issue with Attorney General Reno when she came in for an oversight hearing on July 15 of this year and confronted Attorney General Reno with the very basic fact that the Federal election law, with criminal provisions, is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to enforce and the responsibility of the chief enforcement officer, the Attorney General, to enforce, so that by no stretch of the imagination would it be plausible for the Attorney General to say that it was a matter for the Federal Election Commission. Notwithstanding that, the Attorney General continued to articulate this argument that it was a matter for the Federal Election Commission, which I submit, and I say this respectfully, is spurious and facetious on its face. How can it be a matter for the Federal Election Commission when it is a criminal law, criminal sanction which is the responsibility of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice? This was a very, very material matter.”