Date: 2005-12-17
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

We thank the gentleman from South Carolina so much for joining us. Your expertise is incredibly helpful in terms of us highlighting the problems that we are trying to address in this Chamber. Do you know how I would analogize the fact that the Republican leadership has now allowed the drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to be added to the Defense appropriations bill. that they have actually agreed to that? I would analogize it this way. and analogize the addition of any extraneous material. campaign finance reform. well. I would say. we almost would have to say "reverse campaign finance reform." because the 527 legislation that they are talking about is more insidious. not being done in a way that would be designed to help add to the public discourse. But the addition of campaign finance issues or oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to the Defense appropriations bill. the way I would analogize it is similar to insurgents in Iraq and in other areas of the world using .children as shields. When our troops go into a neighborhood in Iraq and the insurgents put women and children in front of them so that they get killed instead of the insurgents. that is exactly What the Republican leadership is trying to do here. They are trying to put things in that they cannot get passed on their own because they cannot stand on their own merits. They are putting the Defense appropriations bill. analogous to the women and children in wartorn countries. in front of items that have no merit. that do not have broad bipartisan support. and that cannot pass by themselves and. as a result. causing significant. unnecessary harming to this country. It is just absolutely unconscionable. It is another circumvention of the process. It is another example of not dealing straight. another example of the incompetence. of the corruption. of the cronyism. Why can they not just be straight? I serve on a committee where we work together in a bipartisan fashion. We lay our cards on the table in the Financial Services Committee. We agree on some things. we do not agree on others. But there is no clandestine backroom dealing. There is no attempt in that committee to try to stick things in that they can hide what they are really frying to do. The American people want openness. They want us to vote clearly. I want a clear shot to vote tomorrow. I support defense of this country. Since I have been here. I have taken every opportunity to vote "yes" on defending this countryto the degree that we need to. But I have serious problems. and so do my constituents. with drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. Quite honestly. we have a raging debate about oil drilling off the coast of Florida. Fortunately. that is not in this bill. but it could have been. If we are going to continue the debate that we have had on campaign finance reform. then it should be done in the open. It should be done not at the last minute when we are trying to get out of here for the holidays. It should be done in the deliberative fashion. in the appropriate place. in the committees of jurisdiction. But they cannot get it in the honest and straight and fair way. It has to be the back door. It has to be clandestine. And it has to be putting things that they feel like most Members could not vote against in front of. just like insurgents put women and children in front of them so that they can get hurt first. The American people are going to get hurt first when extraneous material that has nothing to do with the defense of our country is in front of some awful proposals that would never be sustained on their own.