Statement Of Congressman Barney Frank
U.S. House Of Representatives; February 1, 2006

The question is not whether we pass something, which frankly seems to me rather trivial. I am going to vote for it, I think it is better than not. It is interesting it took the party of reform, what, 11 years to stumble across it.

But what is important is what is not here. The gentleman misunderstands the legislative process if he thinks that he satisfies it by saying, okay, we will take one piece of this and we will bring it up and we will decide what is up and what is not, and we will open it up to debate.

It is the lack of debate that has been a problem. It is also the case, of course, that the corruption we are dealing with goes very deep. And I have to say that the suggestion that the Republican Party, the assertion, is a party of reform simply does not square with the facts.

Let us talk about some of the legislation. The problem frankly has not been former Members. When you came to prescription drugs and dealing with the pharmaceutical industry in general, it has been future former Members.

That is current Members who plan to be former Members in the arms of the industry that they were voting to regulate.

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, we have got a serious systemic problem of corruption that I am prepared at this point to correct myself. I am one of those who talks about in Washington a vast right-wing conspiracy. It now seems clear to me that we instead have had a vast right-wing kleptocracy, and putting people out of the gym is not a beginning of dealing seriously with that problem.