[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14376]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



ONCE AGAIN REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP TRYING TO TALK CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM 
                                TO DEATH

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, can there be any doubt now that the 
leadership wants to kill campaign finance reform? If my colleagues will 
listen closely, they can even hear the leadership trying to talk this 
issue to death one more time.
  The leadership has ordered 2 months of hearings. Last Thursday was 
our first. What did we learn? Nothing, nothing that we did not learn in 
15 hours of floor debate last year on the Shays-Meehan bill, a bill 
that passed this House by 252 to 179; nothing that we have not learned 
already in the 12 committee hearings on the issue since the 104th 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, the time for talk has long since passed. The Americans 
want and expect action. We can pass the bipartisan Shays-Meehan bill 
right now. These hearings are a sham designed to delay actions. As our 
colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), observed, if we 
wait until September, the Senate will just run out the clock.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sign the discharge petition to 
bring Shays-Meehan to the floor. Otherwise these hearings promise to be 
the death knell for meaningful campaign finance reform this year.

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