[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 111 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8381-H8382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CONGRESSIONAL REFORM

  (Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, America has asked for real reform of the 
way this Congress operates, an end to the money chase and more 
attention to the Nation's business, and a bipartisan effort has been 
made to accomplish real campaign finance reform, supported by a number 
of independent citizen watchdog groups. But today, 1 week after Reform 
Week was canceled by the Gingrich leadership, today we will have phony 
reform and be denied completely an opportunity to even vote on a 
bipartisan reform of the way business operates here.
  And what of the bill that will come before us? Well, 10 Republicans 
have described that Gingrich bill as fundamentally flawed, more so than 
the current system, as freezing the average American out of the 
political process. That is their description of the bill.
  The independent watchdog groups like Common Cause have been more 
direct. They refer to this Thomas bill as phony reform that locks in 
the corrupt

[[Page H8382]]

status quo, leaves open the floodgates of special interest PAC money 
and increases the amounts that the wealthy can give. This is not 
reform, it is a fraud.

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