I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, every person in this body takes an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. There is no greater enemy to our Constitution, indeed to our democracy, than the role of money in the political process today. Those of us who take this oath of office to serve in Congress serve in Washington, D.C., a city that was built on a swamp. Two centuries later, it is back to being a swamp, a political swamp.
Today, we have the opportunity to drain the swamp and change the political landscape of political fund-raising in our country. We have an opportunity to empower the people. How many people have been turned off by the political process because of the role of big money? How many people fear that the Speaker's gavel is an auctioneer's gavel, not the gavel of the people? How many people decide not to run for office because of the role money plays?
Today, we have an opportunity to send a message to the American people that their role in the political process is important, in supporting candidates or in being candidates. We have an opportunity to clean up our act. And indeed we have a responsibility to do so. I have great confidence that if we pass the Shays-Meehan bill and when we pass the Shays-Meehan bill, we will clear the way for a new way in America in terms of political involvement. We have the creativity, we have the experience, we have the issues, we have the interest on the part of the American people which will be reawakened to involve them more fully in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
I urge my colleagues to take advantage of this historic opportunity and support Shays-Meehan.