[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H6723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                RETURN POLITICAL POWER WHERE IT BELONGS

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, in the first half of 1996, the tobacco 
industry donated over $1 million to the Republican Party. Last month 
Speaker Gingrich and his Republican colleagues returned the favor. 
Republican Members snuck into the balanced budget bill a $50 billion 
credit provision for tobacco companies, my friends, not a bad return on 
their $1 million donation.
  Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported from the Campaign for 
Tobacco-Free Kids that 83 percent of the Members from the other body 
took tobacco money last year, and they voted against increasing funding 
to crack down on illegal sales of tobacco to minors.
  It is no wonder the American people have lost faith in their 
political system. It is time for Congress to ban soft money 
contributions to political parties and restore some integrity to our 
campaign finance system.
  Democrats are asking Speaker Gingrich to schedule a vote this month 
to ban soft money. The American people should not have to wait any 
longer.
  We need to take this important first step. Let us take the influence 
out of the hands of the wealthy and the special interests. We need to 
return political power in this Nation to where it rightly belongs, in 
the hands of average working Americans.

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