[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 18, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 65--RELATIVE TO COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Dorgan) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and 
Administration:

                               S. Res. 65

     SEC.   . SENSE OF THE SENATE ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM.

       (A) Findings.--The Senate finds that--
       Whereas spending on federal election campaigns has 
     increased to an estimated $2.65 billion in the most recent 
     election cycle, a three-fold increase over campaign spending 
     just 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation;
       Whereas in the 1995-1996 election cycle, the Democratic 
     party committees raised $332 million, a 73% increase over the 
     $192 million raised four years earlier and the Republican 
     party committees raised $549 million, a 74% increase over the 
     $316 million they raised four years earlier;
       (3) overall campaign spending for congressional races has 
     risen from $99 million in 1976 to $626 million in 1996, a 
     more than six-fold increase;
       (4) since 1992, when political parties were first required 
     to report soft money contributions to the Federal Election 
     Commission, these contributions, which are raised outside 
     federal election law, have tripled, from $86 million in 1992 
     to over $263 million in the last election cycle;
       (5) there has been a proliferation of negative ``issue'' 
     ads paid for by political parties and interest groups to 
     influence federal elections, further increasing the cost of 
     campaigns;
       (6) as political campaigns have become longer, costlier and 
     more negative, voter apathy has increased and voter 
     participation in presidential elections has declined from 60% 
     in 1948-1968, to 53% from 1972-92, to all-time low of 49% in 
     1996;
       (7) these trends will continue if Congress fails to enact 
     comprehensive campaign finance reform;
       (8) the more than 6,700 pages of hearing records, 49 days 
     of testimony before 8 different congressional committees, 15 
     committee reports from 6 different committees and 113 Senate 
     floor votes, constitute a sufficient Senate record on 
     campaign finance reform; and
       (9) campaign finance reform has been filibustered in the 
     Senate 17 times in the last ten years.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that the Senate should proceed to the consideration of 
     comprehensive campaign finance reform that reduces spending 
     on political campaigns and curtails the influence of special 
     interest money in federal elections by no later than May 31, 
     1997 and adopt as a goal the final enactment of such 
     legislation by no later than July 4, 1997.

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in the 1996 election cycle, unprecedented 
amounts of money freely flowed into and out of the campaign coffers of 
candidates for Federal public office. The time required to raise funds 
is excessive, and increasingly more expensive election campaigns have 
fostered the view that spending is out of control.
  Campaign finance reform is long overdue. The fact that we are 
embarking upon an intensive scrutiny of past campaign practices should 
not impede our effort to move swiftly and concurrently to correct 
deficiencies in the present system.
  We must do more than just point out the errors of the past. We must 
make changes for the future.
  Today, Senator Byron Dorgan and I submitted a resolution stating that 
it is the sense of the Senate that the Senate should proceed to 
consideration, by no later than May 31, 1997, of comprehensive campaign 
finance reform that reduces spending on political campaigns and 
curtails the influence of special interest money in Federal elections, 
and that the Senate should adopt as a goal the final enactment of such 
legislation by no later than July 4, 1997.

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