Sylvester Turner: “for over 15 months this Congress has spent thousand of hours and billions of dollars investigating campaign finance…”

“for over 15 months this Congress has spent thousand of hours and billions of dollars investigating campaign finance abuses, and this is what it has all come down to: a package of four partisan bills brought to this floor on a calendar that offers no opportunity for amendment and little debate. Those who work for genuine reform on both sides of the aisle are outraged by this thinly disguised charade. I call on every American to send a message to this Congress that they too are outraged, that they deserve and rightly expect a system of democracy where their voice and their vote determine the outcome of elections, not the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into campaigns by special interests, dollars hidden in so-called soft money. Every American understands that true campaign reform must be accomplished in a bipartisan effort. No such bill was allowed on this floor tonight. Instead we were given the illusion of reform. I am confident that the American people know the difference and that they will demand government in the public interest, not the special interests.”