Utah senators voted against a campaign spending reform bill, which was defeated in the U.S. Senate this week.
The joint resolution was defeated Thursday after a 54-42 vote. The bill sought to give federal and state governments control of setting campaign funding parameters.
Utah Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) took to the Senate floor Thursday morning, speaking for a third time in opposition to the bill.
Lee argued it is not up to government to choose who gets to speak in the political process or how they can do so.
“Of all the things that the government might do it should never, it may never, it can never be the arbiter of what constitutes permissible political speech, of who gets to criticize the government and how,” Lee said. “That can never happen, not in our land, not in this free land, not ever.”
Lee also said limiting campaign funding would prohibit organizations from contributing valuable public input to the election process.
Lee said he was disappointed, not only by the content of the bill, but how the issue was debated.
“What it looks like here is a take-it-or-leave-it vote with no opportunity to provide amendments, no opportunity for discussion about the intricate details of this proposal and very, very little discussion,” Lee said.
Lee claimed the law would negatively alter the fragile balance of power in the country between the government and the public, restricting Americans in their ability to influence the political process.
If the bill had not failed to reach cloture, it would have continued on track to become the 28th constitutional amendment. The 27th Amendment was passed in 1992, prohibiting immediate Congressional pay raises.