Sylvester Turner: “this House today has a historic opportunity to end the influence of big money on public policy making. Today we are…”

“this House today has a historic opportunity to end the influence of big money on public policy making. Today we are going to have the opportunity to vote on a bill, the Shays-Meehan bill, H.R. 2356, that has been worked on for many months in an effort to try to craft a bill that not only will pass this House, but that will be acceptable to the United States Senate, where they have already passed a strong campaign finance reform bill under the leadership of Senator McCain and Senator Feingold. Let there be no mistake about what is going on on this floor today: we have heard reference in the opening remarks to a bill that will be offered that will be purported and suggested to be 'superior' to the Shays-Meehan proposal. There should be no mistake about it: whether the bill is better or worse, the bill will never see the light of day, because the purpose of those who seek to amend or substitute the Shays-Meehan bill today, their purpose is to be sure that the bill they pass is not acceptable to the Senate, where it will be relegated to a conference committee, which will be a black hole of certain death to the bill because the Speaker of the House, who has designated this Shays-Meehan legislation as Armageddon, would have the authority to appoint the conferees to that conference committee.”