Ron Kind: “we are now in day 83, 83 days after July 4, the day that the President asked this body to enact campaign finance reform.…”

“we are now in day 83, 83 days after July 4, the day that the President asked this body to enact campaign finance reform. I do not know what we are so concerned about, what we are so afraid of on this side of the congressional House. The Senate is starting to make some movement; I think it is time for us in the House of Representatives to do the same. But I do not want to have a false debate or a false bill come before this floor. I do not want a bill that we are going to sit here and look at that contains a poison pill. A poison pill is something that is going to place one party at a distinct disadvantage of another party. That is why I am proud of the product that I and other Members of the freshman bipartisan task force on finance reform have produced and have introduced. It is a commonsense approach that gets rid of the biggest of the big money, a soft money ban, requires greater identification of groups trying to influence the outcome of elections, requiring greater disclosure of candidates and where the money sources are coming from, but we need to schedule this now: An honest debate, a bill that is receiving bipartisan support, something that us freshmen have produced together, working in a way that can receive support on both sides of the aisle. The time to get to work is now.”