[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 178 (Thursday, December 3, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H13471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ETHICS REFORM

  (Mr. QUIGLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, Louis Brandeis said sunlight is the best 
disinfectant. So with ethics once more in the headlines, I think it's 
worth asking how far we've come in bringing light to the people's 
House.
  This is not a partisan issue. Corruption votes both ways. It is, 
rather, an issue of trust. These teams, more than ever, demand 
effective government, yet it is very hard to govern effectively without 
the public's trust. We need to complete the active ethics 
investigations currently being considered in this House, and we need to 
eliminate the conditions which contributed to these violations in the 
first place.
  I've introduced two measures to eliminate pay-to-play activities at 
both the State and Federal level. H.R. 614 would prohibit earmarks to 
for-profit entities, and H.R. 3427 would eliminate Federal provisions 
which prevent States like Illinois from cleaning up their act on pay-
to-play corruption.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting both of these measures.

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