Patty Murray: “this past February, over 4 months ago, I took the Senate floor to announce my cosponsorship of S. 1219. As I spoke about…”

“this past February, over 4 months ago, I took the Senate floor to announce my cosponsorship of S. 1219. As I spoke about how unique this bill is--one of the only truly bipartisan attempts to reform campaign laws in two decades--I could not help thinking to myself, ``here we go again.'' I have only been a Senator for a little over 3 years. In Senate terms, that is not very long. But I have been here long enough to see campaign finance reform come up, and be killed. In the 103d Congress, shortly after the 1992 elections, I proudly cosponsored campaign reform legislation. I was eager to answer the voters' hopes for cleaner, more thoughtful politics. I watched colleagues come to the floor, proclaim the need for reforms, and declare their support for good legislation. The Senate passed that bill, S. 3, and sent it to the House. A short time later, I saw it killed amidst partisan bickering, despite the mad scramble of Senators wanting to be seen as leading the charge for reforms. In the end, nothing was accomplished, and here we are today living under the same campaign system that has created so much cynicism and mistrust among the voters. So when I endorsed S. 1219, I thought ``here we go again'' because I was embarking on my second attempt to reform campaign laws. But this time, instead of thinking we could simply pass a bill and send it to the White House, I knew we had our work cut out for us. Now it is June, and the 104th Congress will adjourn in a few months.…”