[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 29, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5987-H5988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  URGING COLLEAGUES TO JOIN IN SUPPORT OF BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN FINANCE 
                                 REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Kind] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, this is truly an historic day in our Nation's 
history.

[[Page H5988]]

Both parties recognize the challenges we face as far as recurring 
structural deficits. They came together and through some hard-fought 
negotiations, some compromises, some give-and-takes, it was announced 
today that we have reached an agreement on a balanced budget plan that 
will bring the books finally in balance for the first time since 1969, 
when I was in the first grade.
  Yet, just to strike a cautionary note, this does provide the largest 
expansion of educational programs in the Nation's history, the largest 
expansion of children's health care since 1965, when Medicaid was 
passed. But I have always viewed this as the first step of a two-step 
process.
  The second step that we have to begin working on right away is some 
long-term fixes with the entitlement programs, Medicare, Social 
Security, which according to all the demographics and all the analyses 
are due to explode starting early next century when the baby boomers 
start to retire.
  That is the second step as far as maintaining the fiscal 
responsibility and the discipline started today, and that will continue 
into the next century.
  We also face other challenges in this country and before this 
Congress. One of the big issues I came to Congress on and which I feel 
there is no bigger issue that we should be dealing with in trying to 
find a resolution is the role of big money in the political system.
  That is why I was proud when I was called and I joined the Bipartisan 
Task Force on Campaign Finance Reform, working with my five freshman 
Republican colleagues and six Democratic colleagues. I commend the 
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Tom Allen] and the gentleman from Arkansas 
[Mr. Asa Hutchinson] for the leadership they have shown during the 
course of this process, which has been educational for all of us.
  It has been very difficult. There were internal and outside forces 
doing everything they could to try to scuttle what we were trying to 
accomplish, because anyone who is a student of this institution 
realizes that nothing significant has ever been achieved without some 
bipartisan cooperation.
  So it was with that attitude that we joined the task force, trying to 
work out a compromise, finding common areas of agreement and, as 
freshmen, proposing our own campaign finance reform bill. This is 
incremental in every sense of the word. This is not the type of 
comprehensive overhaul that I personally would have liked to have seen, 
but it is probably the best chance we have of passing anything in this 
session of Congress. What it does do is it targets the biggest, as the 
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Allen] said, the biggest of the big 
contributions in the political system, the soft money contributions.
  Just to highlight the problem we have with soft money contributions 
right now, I am holding up a chart that shows the growth of soft money 
to the political parties, both Republican and Democrat, over the last 
three election cycles.
  As everyone can see, in 1996, it exploded soft money contributions, 
close to $140 million being contributed to the Republican Party, a 
little over $120 million to the Democratic Party. I submit, this is 
just the tip of the iceberg. We really have not seen anything yet until 
we are able to take some action in this session of Congress.
  That is why I am very proud of the product we have produced in the 
course of the negotiations. I am very proud, in a bipartisan fashion, 
of the atmosphere in which we came together to try to do what we feel 
is really in the best interests of the country.
  I would encourage my colleagues to get behind this piece of 
legislation. We are already seeing a lot of support within the freshman 
class on both sides of the aisle, but obviously it is not until some of 
the more senior Members start to weigh in on this legislation that we 
will see any true hope of getting this thing scheduled for the House 
floor, having it debated, and finally, calling a vote on what I think 
is a crucial and vitally important issue facing our country today.

                              {time}  1715

  I encourage the leadership in the House to give it due consideration. 
I think it will be a great victory if we can at least bring it to the 
House floor. I ask Americans around the country who are listening in 
tonight to start calling in, start writing letters and hold their 
Representatives' feet to the fire on this very simple and incremental 
approach to campaign finance reform.
  I believe that if Members in this Congress cannot get behind this, 
cannot cast a vote in favor of what the freshman bipartisan task force 
is proposing in the course of this finance reform, then really they are 
really not interested in true campaign finance reform.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. KIND. I yield to the gentleman from Maine.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say that the gentleman 
from Wisconsin [Mr. Kind] has been one of the leaders in our task force 
and has done an absolutely superb job. Mr. Kind makes a very good 
point. That point is this. If this Congress, if this Congress spends 
months investigating potential campaign finance abuses, almost all of 
which are traceable to the amount and influence of soft money and then 
fails to act, we will all be embarrassed. I know that is why you are 
here, Ron, and it is why I am here. We do not want to be embarrassed. 
We want to legislate, not just investigate. I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, hopefully something good will come out of the 
investigations that we are seeing on Capitol Hill that will highlight 
the problem of soft money in the political process. If there was not 
any soft money in the last election cycle, we would not be having these 
investigations today focussing on the role of soft money in the 
campaigns.
  I think it is vitally important that not only the Members here have 
the courage to step up and recognize the problem facing the country but 
people back home start weighing in on this issue and start letting 
their voices, their concerns be heard on this form of legislation so 
that we can finally have it up for a debate and a vote in this session.

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