[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7643-H7644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      H.R. 3760 ENCOURAGES CAMPAIGNS TO BE FINANCED BY THE WEALTHY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take my 5 minutes to talk about 
this Republican so-called Campaign Finance Reform Act proposal. When I 
looked at it today and looked at some of the details, I have to say 
that I was actually shocked that in the context of a so-called reform 
week, which I guess now on the part of the Republican leadership is 
limited to this so-called Campaign Finance Reform Act, that they have 
proposed that the Republican leadership has come up with a bill that, 
in my opinion, is nothing short of obscene in terms of what it would do 
to the political system.
  My constituents, I have to be honest, do not complain a great deal to 
me about campaigns and financing campaigns, but those that do write to 
me, those that do talk to me about the issue, the number 1 concern on 
their mind is the obscene amount of money that is spent on 
congressional races, on

[[Page H7644]]

Senate races. We do not even get to the level of the Presidential 
campaign, but particularly on the Federal races for Congress, for 
Senate and for the House of Representatives.
  Any campaign finance reform should try to make an effort to reduce 
the overall amount of money that is spent on a campaign and not allow 
the campaign and the financing of it to be increasingly dependent upon 
large checks by wealthy individuals, and that is what the Republican 
leadership is now proposing.
  I have often said, and I have actually voted in the past for campaign 
finance reform that tries to contain a public financing component. Some 
people may be familiar with our State of New Jersey, with my State of 
New Jersey, where the gubernatorial race is sort of a good example, in 
my opinion, of what a good financing structure would be for a campaign. 
There are caps on spending, there are requirements that in order to 
capture public funds that you have to raise a certain amount of money 
from individuals, but you can also raise a certain amount from PAC's, 
you can have some large contributions from individuals, you can have 
small contributions from individuals. An ideal campaign finance reform 
would cap the overall amount that could be spent on a race at a 
rational amount and then require that the candidate raise some money 
from small contributors, some money from PAC's, perhaps, and some money 
from wealthy contributors before they get some public financing 
component.
  Mr. Speaker, that is the only way that you can have a system, in my 
opinion, where anyone can run for office, for Congress, regardless of 
their background. If you make the system dependent more and more on 
large individual contributions, it will basically mean that people of 
modest means cannot run, and I will just give you an example.
  When I first ran for Congress, my opponent was someone who had a 
chain of businesses, and basically what he did was to get a large 
amount of $1,000 individual contributions from people that were 
involved in his business. If you are not someone who owns a major 
business, a major corporation, a major business enterprise, you do not 
have that ability. But that is what the Republican leadership would 
entrench in this financed system for campaigns for the House of 
Representatives, and it is nothing short of obscene.
  Now, I want to say that there were some Republicans, some of my 
colleagues on the Republican side, that actually had laid bare the 
system and said that they do not like what their leadership, what 
Speaker Gingrich and the others in the Republican leadership, have 
proposed and what we are going to be voting on this week. A ``Dear 
Colleague'' letter went out from some of these moderate Republicans, or 
reform Republicans I should say, including Marge Roukema from my home 
State, and just to give you an idea, I will not read the entire letter, 
but I would like to read from some parts of it, and it is sent to other 
Republicans.

  ``Dear Republican Colleagues,'' it says, ``We are concerned that the 
bill that the House is planning to take up next week, H.R. 3760, is 
more fundamentally flawed than our current system, worse than the 
current system.'' The fact is the bill will not give you political 
cover as we head into Reform Week. The average American will be left 
even further behind in the Washington money chase as they are frozen 
out of the political process.''
  The bill actually increases the amounts that wealthy individuals can 
contribute in Federal elections. Consider the facts. Maximum amount 
individuals can give to a candidate goes from $1,000 to $2,500 per 
election. Now instead of $1,000 the individual can give $2,500:

       Cumulative amount individuals can give to candidates and 
     PAC's goes from $25,000 to $72,500 per year.
       Maximum amounts individuals can give to any one political 
     party committee goes from $20,000 to $58,000 per year.
       In fact, under the proposal, a wealthy individual will be 
     able to give over $300,000 in hard money contributions to 
     affect Federal elections in their own State and another $2.8 
     million in hard money to other state political party 
     committees, bringing the total up to $3.1 million in a single 
     year.

  Over $3 million an individual can now give to these races.
  We need true reform, and this is not the way to go. This just 
encourages campaigns to be financed by the wealthy.

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