Maria Cantwell: “one reason I made campaign finance reform a centerpiece of my campaign and joined by colleagues Senators McCain and…”

“one reason I made campaign finance reform a centerpiece of my campaign and joined by colleagues Senators McCain and Feingold in working hard to pass campaign finance legislation, is because our current campaign finance system contributes to Americans' growing cynicism about government. And who can blame them for being cynical and believing that government really does not represent their interests, when procedural maneuvering causes a bipartisan bill passed by a wide majority to fail to be transmitted from the Senate to the House? The McCain-Feingold bill passed this body with 59 votes. Similar legislation has twice passed the House with 252 votes. The majority of both bodies clearly support campaign finance reform, and so do a majority of the American people. Yet leaders in both Houses are apparently determined to use every tool at their disposal to force this broadly supported bill into a divisive conference committee composed of the most vocal opponents of reform. The day we passed this bill in the Senate, I spoke on the floor about what an amazing feeling it was to have accomplished one of my primary legislative goals within 90 days of arriving in the Senate.”