[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 139 (Thursday, September 29, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        LOBBYING DISCLOSURE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about this Lobbying Disclosure 
Act today, and I want to share with the House and with the public a 
couple of ideas I really think ought to be pointed out.
  It is a fact that somewhere between 25, 30, and 35 Members at the 
most in this House do not accept any contributions from political 
action committees, special interests for their campaigns. So it is a 
very small number of us. I am one of them that refused to accept these 
campaign contributions.
  But all of this talk that we have heard today about lobbying reform 
and gift reform, while some of it is good, some of the legislation is 
good, some of the legislation is bad, the fact is that it really is a 
side show to the real problem with respect to who owns influence buying 
and influence peddling in the United States Congress, and that is the 
mechanism that has been set up through political action committees 
which actually do in fact purchase over a period of time first of all 
access, second of all influence, and finally, ultimately votes on very 
narrow, specific pieces of legislation that they want to see passed. 
And when we spend all of this time and energy and effort talking about 
lobbying reform and gift reforms for $20 gifts, it may very easily have 
the tendency to confuse the American public about what the real problem 
is.
  The fact is that $200 million was spent in the 1992 cycle on special 
interest contributions to political campaigns in the U.S. Congress. 
That is $200 million, an average of a quarter of a million dollars per 
candidate per campaign, a quarter of a million dollars. That is where 
the real problem is. That is where the influence gets purchased. That 
is why special interests have such a death grip stranglehold on this 
House of Representatives, and that is why, in part, this House is able 
to continue to bring across legislation that is so unreflective and 
unrepresentative of the wishes, the hopes, the desires and the 
aspirations of the American public.

                              {time}  2000

  So let us call it what it is. Let us be truthful about the situation. 
The situation is that, yes, it is probably just as well we eliminate 
gifts completely. Yes, we should not be in the business of taking 
trips, and that is good legislation, as well; and, yes, there should be 
some tightening down of lobbyists' ability to entertain, perhaps.
  But that is not the real problem; $20-$30 meals are not where the 
influence is purchased. Because every single Member of this House wants 
one thing more than anything else, and it is very bipartisan, and that 
is to get reelected, to come back here. When you have that motivation 
combined with the kind of money that is paid to campaigns in order to 
get people reelected, and as we have become more and more dependent 
upon the political action committee function of special interests for 
the financing of these campaigns, that has a very insidious influence 
and a very insidious impact on the way that legislation gets fashioned, 
crafted, and finally voted on in this House.
  I think that it is very important for all of us in this house to be 
reminded of that fact, and it is even more important for the American 
people to know that while, yes, there is probably on balance more good 
than bad in the bill that was passed today, and, yes, there are some 
technical things that need to be done to fix it, the fact is we have 
not begun to go after the real problem, and that is political action 
committee influence that is purchased for special interests every 
single election cycle.

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