Russ Feingold: “this is a proud day for the Senate. I certainly thank the Chair of the committee, the Senator from California, for all…”

“this is a proud day for the Senate. I certainly thank the Chair of the committee, the Senator from California, for all her guidance and hard work to make sure this legislation got to this point. I certainly thank the Presiding Officer, Mr. Obama of Illinois, who has been a wonderful partner in this effort. I enjoyed working with him, and he was tough all the way through when it counted to make sure we would end up with this kind of strong legislation. Many months of work on legislation to reform our Nation's lobbying disclosure laws and the rules that govern our conduct as Senators are about to come to a close. The result is a bill that by any measure must be considered landmark legislation. I am pleased to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to vote for cloture and support the bill. I want to speak for a few minutes about what is in this bill and the forces that brought us to this moment. I introduced the first comprehensive lobbying and ethics reform package in the Senate in July 2005, about 10 years after enactment of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 and the last significant changes to the Senate's rules on gifts and travel on which I worked with the senior Senator from Arizona.”