Ron Kind: “Mr. Speaker the campaign finance reform legislation we are considering today, and the process by which we reached this…”

“Mr. Speaker the campaign finance reform legislation we are considering today, and the process by which we reached this point is a complete sham and a fraud. The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives is engaged in a purely partisan attempt to kill campaign finance reform. As was illustrated by the debate last Friday, the scheduling of this bill took place without any consultation with the Democrats or even with moderate Republicans who are committed to reform. With the scheduling of reform under 'Suspension of the Rules', which requires the support of 2/3 of Congress to pass, it is guaranteed that campaign reform will fail. It is clear that a bipartisan majority of this House supports campaign finance reform. The delay of the vote from last week, and now the parliamentary tricks the leadership is using today, show the lengths the Republican leadership will go to kill campaign finance reform. For the past year I have worked with my fellow freshman members on the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform task force. Our group came up with a strong, bipartisan bill that had no poison pills. No one from our group was consulted in scheduling this vote. Representatives Chris Shays and Marty Meehan have been working in a bipartisan manner for more than three years to craft a campaign finance reform bill. They were not consulted in scheduling this vote.”