mr. bennet: thank you. mr. president, i first want to acknowledge the severity of the challenges that we face as a country right now, whether it's military action to stop the threat from isis or in the crisis in ukraine, colorado is waiting anxiously to hear from the president tonight and we are all concerned with that as we should be. today on the floor of the senate, mr. president, is a constitutional amendment, and while the proposed amendment and while it's on the floor i wanted to take a minute to talk about it. tonight in colorado, a swing state, families will endure an avalanche of political ads and many come from object secured interests -- obscured interests with happen names as the government integrity network, citizens for a working america and so on and so forth and there will be no way to tell who these folks are because under the laws of the united states many of these organizations don't have any obligation to disclose where their money comes from, a privileged status that individual americans do

mr. president, is senator udall's constitutional amendment and that of senator bennet, the good senators from new mexico and colorado who have joined together on a very important issue. we're going to consider that. the first vote will be tonight. mr. president, we have had in this country a flood of very, very dark money coming into this nation's political system which is threatening to tear apart the fabric of american democracy. during the 2012 presidential campaign outside groups met about $1 billion. that's as much outside spending as took place in the previous ten elections. now, this year, mr. president, -- last year was a presidential election, so the moneys focused on the senate and house races -- they will again break all records. this spike in the amount of money being pumped into the system is not surprising, as alarming as it is. recent decisionses rendered by the supreme court of the united states, citizens united, the mccutcheon case, have destroyed our campaign finance laws, have left the american people with a status quo in which radical billionaires are attempting to buy

mr. romanoff has served 4 times in the statehouse, two of them has house speaker. in 2010 he ran for senate against senator michael bennet. we began by a coin toss backstage giving the winner of the coin toss the chance to decide. we let the challenger called going, and the challenger -- call the coin and the challenger won he opted to let the congressman go first. mr. coffman, president obama's strategy to target isis in the middle east is to use affect oil training and equipping moderate rebels. does isis pose a direct threat to the united states national security and what changes in the plan would you support? does pose a direct threat to the united states. they brutally murdered to american citizens and have publicly stated it is only the beginning. i supported the president in his proposal to train and arm the free syrian army in their fight against isis. i think where i differ is how do you define boots on the ground. as a former marine corps officer, is not putting conventional forces on the ground to be the maneuver element. but i worry that the administration is defining it so strictly that we won't even have fo

mr. president, who did these statements come from? tom udall, sponsor of the vote that we had last night? mark udall -- i'm sorry, michael bennet from colorado? he and tomorrow udall sponsored the constitutional amendment. did it come from them or some other democrat? no, that's not the case. let me read -- quote a few things. "keep wealthy individual us from buying public office and stop the flow of soft money and spending should be expedited so voters can judge for themselves what's appropriate." those are quotes, mr. president. did these quotes come from bernie sanders, who's known as being a liberal? he's been an outspoken voablght for campaign finance we form. but the author of these quotes is none other than my friend, the distinguished republican leader, the senior senator from kentucky. these are all his quotes, word or word. the senior senator from kentucky has a track record on campaign finance reform spending two decades or more. i was with him there 25 years ago fighting the undue influence of unlimited campaign donations. i cosponsored his 1989 constitutional amendment that would have given congress power to enact