Russ Feingold: “I am very pleased to speak about ethics and lobbying reform and the bill we will consider over the next week or so. To…”

“I am very pleased to speak about ethics and lobbying reform and the bill we will consider over the next week or so. To start, what a pleasure it is to have a majority here that not only supports reform but recognizes the importance of dealing with this issue immediately in this new Congress. There is no better way to show the American people that things have changed in Washington and will continue to change than by taking up and passing strong ethics and lobbying reforms right away. Ethical conduct in Government should not be an aspiration, it should be a given. For too long, the public has had to open the morning papers and read about how Congress is mired in scandal rather than about how we are going to deal with the really tough problems facing our country. We might wish that rules aren't necessary, but time has proven, over and over again, that they are. And once there are rules, there seem always to be people who want to bend those rules or skate as close to the line as they can. And sometimes they fall or jump over that line. And so the rules need to be revisited and toughened, based on experience.”