Russ Feingold: “I and the senior Senator from Arizona, the senior Senator from Tennessee, and the Presiding Officer, and many of the…”

“I and the senior Senator from Arizona, the senior Senator from Tennessee, and the Presiding Officer, and many of the rest of us have been looking forward to this moment for a number of months--the return of campaign finance reform to the floor of the U.S. Senate. This is an important occasion because, when we left the issue last fall, we clearly were in somewhat of a stalemate. Some people wanted more than anything else to say that is it, the campaign finance reform debate of the 105th Congress is over and done with and we will not see it again. They wanted to call a halt to this debate and let us go to the 1998 elections changing absolutely nothing about the current system. But others, including myself, thought that our consideration last fall of this issue had not been sufficient, that the American people deserved more from this Senate than parliamentary tricks and poison pills, that campaign finance reform is essential to the future of our democracy, and that we cannot afford to once again sweep this problem under the rug. The sweeping has already begun anew. And it is vigorous sweeping. It is coming in the form, not this time of a poison pill amendment, but a poison pill bill.”