Pat Meehan

Let me ask a question. What about the case of Ken McGuire and David Lemongello, two New Jersey police officers shot in the line of duty and seriously injured at this moment in time? They want to file a civil suit. Is that a frivolous case…

This is a limited amount, $10,000. It cannot go for television ads, it cannot go for radio ads.

If the gentlewoman thinks soft money is okay, why does she oppose the $10,000 limit?

Organizations may run any ad they wish at any time at all if they use hard money. Federal PACs, such as those in corporations, labor unions, or groups like the Sierra Club or the NRA have set up, are hard-money entities. All their…

I am happy to respond to the gentleman's inquiry, and the answer is yes. Political action committees, commonly known as PACs, raise money from individual donors in amounts that are limited by Federal law. They are subject to the Federal…

I do think the FEC standard should understand that the language reads not identifiable but clearly identifiable. There will be some photographic images that would not meet the clearly identifiable standard. So I do think that the FEC…

It is clear under Federal election law that only hard money can be used to pay off a loan that was used for hard money expenditures. There is nothing in the Shays-Meehan Substitute that would supersede the current Federal law. Under this…

What I was referring to was the principles on the concept of campaign finance reform, the principles of the concept. That is what I referred to. That is what we are debating. It is not personal, it is substantive; and we are going to…

This legislation does not allow somebody to borrow hard money and then pay it back in soft money. In fact, no one can raise any soft money under this bill after the next election. So what the gentleman is saying just simply is not true.

If we are going to do a campaign finance bill, the people who have opposed reform now say, well, if we are really going to do it, let us put it in effect right away?

No, you cannot do that. That is illegal under the present law, and it would be illegal if this bill passed. All this says is if there are bills that come in after the deadline, you can pay those bills in accordance with Federal law. So if…

I concur with these substitutes and amendments. I thank the gentleman from Connecticut and members of the Republican Conference who have worked diligently over a period of the last several months on this bill. I think we have an historic…

Opponents of campaign finance reform have told us that we must protect free speech. But when they say free speech, they mean big money, because the fact is that the Shays-Meehan bill does not ban any type of communication. It merely reins…

The First Amendment provides that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea. The disclosure law here by contrast forbids the expression of no idea, but merely requires identification of the speaker when the idea is uttered…

Since when is the burden of proof in this country on the person being accused? You have the obligation to provide a case before the Committee on the Judiciary, and you did not provide a single material witness in this case. Not one…

I have no idea why the President ever hired Dick Morris to begin with. After so many Republican campaigns, I have no idea why he did hire him. I think when the history books are written, the President will regret ever having hired him.

Reclaiming my time, what specifically would be the provisions with regard to something that was in the national security interest not to disclose a name?

Reclaiming my time, this sounds like an amendment that we could support. But these amendments, sometimes we need to go through the process to make sure. We have a situation where voter turnout in this country is an embarrassment, and I…

Reclaiming my time, so when a campaign worker goes out and is trying to get people to go to the polls, the campaign or the party would give a check and the person would go, presumably, to a bank to cash the check. What if somebody did not…

I am not asking the gentlewoman whether or not one can buy donuts. I am asking whether or not under the gentlewoman's amendment, would one be able in any way to get cash, if cash was required to go buy a cup of coffee or donuts for poll…

I think it is clear from the votes that have been taken that there probably is a majority of the Members of this House that are ready, willing and able to vote for passage of the Shays-Meehan substitute. I would hope that we would do…

I am not thrilled about 55 amendments to the Shays-Meehan bill to begin with, but as I add it up, it looks certainly like we could get through this in a shorter period of time... I would hope that we could get through this quickly, maybe…

One of the concerns that the minority would have, Mr. Chairman, is that we get a full list of which amendments people respond to and get it in a timely fashion. In other words, if it is at 1 o'clock tomorrow, that we could have the list at…

Interestingly enough, the language in here that is the appropriate language is ``expressly unmistakable and unambiguous support for or opposition to one or more clearly identified candidates when taken as a whole and with limited reference…

We had talked about a comprehensive agreement, an agreement that would result in us being able to complete campaign finance reform by the August recess on August 7; and, to that end, many of us met today and we had talked about agreeing to…