[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  WHY WE NEED CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the front page of today's Washington Post 
shows why the Republican leadership wants to limit the scope of 
investigation of alleged campaign finance abuses to the White House 
while avoiding any action on campaign finance reform.
  According to the story in today's Post, the Republican chairman of 
the committee charged with investigating campaign finance laws 
pressured lobbyists from the government of Pakistan to contribute money 
to his campaign in what the lobbyists describe as a shakedown.
  I understand the chairman in question has canceled a hearing 
scheduled today. In light of today's allegations, the gentleman from 
Indiana should recuse himself from the committee's investigation. He 
should also open up his committee's probe to a much wider scope than 
the White House and include both parties in Congress.
  The country has been reading and hearing an awful lot about foreign 
money in campaign committees, and here we have the gentleman charged 
with leading the probe writing a letter to a foreign government. This 
same chairman is now looking to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a 
one-sided partisan probe of campaign finance, and issuing subpoenas. It 
is this kind of hypocrisy that makes the American public so jaded about 
our entire campaign finance system, and it shows why we need campaign 
finance reform.

                          ____________________