[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REFORM WEEK HAS CEASED TO EXIST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, Reform Week, it has been on a life support 
system for the past few weeks, but now the plug has been pulled and 
Reform Week has been officially terminated.
  The Republican leadership announced less than 2 hours ago that Reform 
Week, the much-heralded and touted week that was going to turn the 
House of Representatives back over to the American people, has been 
postponed once again. This is the same Reform Week that had become the 
Reform Hour and now has simply ceased to exist.
  What happened? Well, rather than actually engaging in real reform, 
the Republican leadership in this House had decided to bring to the 
floor of the House legislation that would not actually reform the 
system but, quite to the contrary, would make it worse.
  Ten of my Republican colleagues circulated a ``Dear Colleague'' 
letter this week that said, and I quote, ``Instead of leveling the 
playing field in elections, this bill will result in greater incumbent 
protection. The bill actually increases the amounts that wealthy 
individuals can contribute to Federal elections.'' This is the letter. 
I am not making it up.

  That is right, they are right. Under current law, an individual can 
give $25,000. Under the Republican campaign finance reform bill, an 
individual will be able to give up to $3.1 million. I have to repeat 
that because the magnitude is startling, it truly is. But it is not 
startling when you consider that the Speaker of the House said not too 
long ago that rather than less money in the system in terms of 
campaigns, we need more money into the system. That is why we had this 
piece of legislation.
  Again, an individual will be able to give up to $3.1 million. Current 
law again, individuals can contribute $25,000. It is mind-boggling to 
think of how they have turned this concept of reform into something 
that is totally unimaginable to anyone here, let alone the American 
public who truly believes that we need to reform our campaign finance 
system, and we do.
  This is not reform. As my Republican colleagues also said in their 
``Dear Colleague,'' and I quote again,

       The average American will be left even further behind in 
     the Washington money chase as they are frozen out of 
     political process. Given the fact that only about 1 percent 
     of Americans gave contributions over $200 or more during the 
     last election, it is indisputable that raising the individual 
     contributions limit will only increase the influence of the 
     wealthy on our political process.

  Mr. Speaker, no wonder the House of Representatives is at one of its 
all-time lowest approval ratings in history. The American people have 
lost confidence in this institution's ability to lead and in this 
institution's ability to do the right thing.

                              {time}  2130

  We have no business considering legislation that will make it even 
harder for ordinary individuals to participate in the political process 
and make it easier for the rich to participate in this process.
  This bill is a sham, just in the same way that Reform Week is a sham. 
Reforming the process has deteriorated into providing political cover 
to politicians who came to Washington and they promised to make a 
difference. Well, it is not going to work.
  Even once again the Republican ``Dear Colleague'' says, ``The fact is 
that H.R. 3760; that is, the Republican campaign finance reform bill, 
will not give you political cover as we head into Reform Week.''
  We do need to pass real campaign finance reform so that hard-working 
Americans can participate in the political process and that the special 
interests are limited in the political process. And doing that would go 
a very, very long way toward restoring the American people's faith in 
our ability to govern our own House, and it would restore their faith 
and put in the faith and the confidence and the trust that they would 
like to put in to those people who are elected every 2 years to do the 
people's business.

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