[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 131 (Friday, September 26, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8024-H8025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, the 
pictures that have been painted in the hearings in the Senate and in 
the disclosures by national news media about what took place in the 
last campaign is not a pretty picture for the American people.
  In fact, I am sure it is quite painful when they see that the last 
campaign of what we call soft money, that is money that essentially is 
not regulated by Federal campaign laws, was made in contributions to 
both parties, both major parties in this country, in huge

[[Page H8025]]

amounts by individuals, and the story that unfolds is that that soft 
money was all about access. It was all about access to the White House; 
it was all about access to the Republican committee chairmen in the 
House, and the Republican committee chairmen in the Senate, and the 
leadership in the House and in the Senate. Letters went out and told 
people, if they gave $10,000, they could have lunch with chairman of 
the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection, 
or the Committee on Labor, or the Committee on Ways and Means, or in 
the Senate one could have lunch or dinner or a private meeting, and for 
$25,000 one could be in on strategy sessions.
  The average American could not even dream of being in on one of those 
sessions. But that soft money then started to dictate, as we saw in the 
previous session, even before this election, lobbyists and powerful 
people sitting in the offices of the Republican leadership drafting 
legislation to weaken the Clean Air Act, to weaken the Clean Water Act, 
to weaken the health safety acts that protect our families and children 
against unhealthy food, to weaken the meat inspection act after people 
have died because of bad meat in the marketplace. But the lobbyists, 
they had access, because they gave $10,000, they gave $100,000. And the 
crescendo really came in campaign finance reform, or really about bad 
campaign practices, the crescendo came just about 1 month ago or 2 
months ago when we did the Balanced Budget Tax Relief Act.
  Members in this House voted on an act believing they were balancing 
the budget and providing tax relief. However, later we found out that 
the interests, the tobacco interests that gave the most money to the 
Republican Party, to the leadership, the individual Members of the 
Republican leadership, they were able to get a meeting that no other 
American could get. They were able to get a meeting where in the middle 
of the night, with no vote, no hearing, no discussion, and apparently, 
if we listen to the people, no authors, but an amendment got into that 
bill that provided $50-, 5-0, $50 billion in tax breaks for the tobacco 
companies that have been killing our citizens and lying about it for 50 
years.

  How did they do it? They did it because they gave hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to members of the leadership, to the Republican 
Party, to the Republican conventions, and the payoff day was the day 
that bill was passed.
  Now, fortunately, because of Senator Durbin over on the other side 
and Senator Collins and the gentlewoman from New York, Mrs. Lowey, 
here, when they made us vote in the light of the day, it went away, 
because we shined democracy, we shined light, we shined the public 
perception. The press could see what was going on, and nobody would 
claim that amendment. But a few hundred thousand dollars got the 
amendment into the bill.
  That is why we have been having procedural votes in this House, 
because we have to end this system that allows the people to sit in the 
galleries, but the special interests to sit in the office of the 
Speaker and the majority whip and design legislation; that allows the 
people to stand outside and petition us on the steps, but allows the 
special interests to sit down and have dinner and talk about how they 
can redesign the communications business and who gets access to this 
billion-dollar giveaway and that billion-dollar giveaway, and the 
networks will not be charged for using the public airways. That is what 
has to stop. That is what this week was about.
  Finally, finally, after this week, we get some utterances from the 
other side that maybe they will allow a debate on campaign finance 
reform. They will not tell us when, they will not tell us how, and they 
are not even sure they will do it.
  We deserve better, and the American people deserve better. The U.S. 
Senate today has started debate on campaign finance reform, and yet in 
the House we cannot even discuss it. We cannot even discuss it because 
of huge contributions to the Republican leadership.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds all Members not to refer 
to individual Senators or to characterize Senate action or inaction.

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