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GUEST: Celia Wexler, Vice President for Advocacy with Common Cause

In the week before former Republican Congressman Bob Ney is sentenced to prison for corruption, Senate Republicans en masse voted late Wednesday night to kill the Lobbying and Ethics reform bill (S. 1). Following the same procedural trick Congressional Republicans used last year to kill lobbying and ethics reform, Senate Republicans – led by the long-standing opponent to any campaign finance and ethics reform legislation, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) – introduced an unrelated line-item veto amendment to the reform bill and then cast a vote to stop the entire bill when the amendment was not accepted. Republican hijinks ultimately failed as the Senate passed the Ethics and Lobbying Reform bill this past Thursday.

For more information, visit www.commoncause.org.