[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 6 (Wednesday, February 4, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H301-H302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN INTEGRITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the 
Bipartisan Campaign Integrity Act, which is H.R. 2183. I want to 
express my thanks to the Speaker and to the leadership of this body for 
the action they took before we went home at the end of the first 
session in which they promised that we would have a vote in this House 
of Representatives on this floor in March on campaign finance reform.
  I think this is a significant step that takes this body with the 
American people to reforming our campaign finance system that has led 
to so many abuses during the last election cycle. So I am grateful for 
the leadership of this body and their commitment, although it does not 
answer all of the problems. There is still a division as to exactly 
what we need to offer, but we need to address soft money, and that is 
understood by the leadership, as well as those who are committed to 
reform in this body.
  So as momentum grows in America for campaign finance reform, I am 
delighted that the momentum is also growing for the Bipartisan Campaign 
Integrity Act. This last week we added 3 new cosponsors to this 
legislation. There are now 74 sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign 
Integrity Act. Republicans and Democrats alike from all areas of the 
political spectrum can support this legislation because it is 
bipartisan, because it avoids the extreme, and it moves to what we can 
agree upon in the area of campaign finance reform, and that is really 
the criteria for reform that might be able to pass this bipartisan 
body.
  I was encouraged this last week that we had the support of 189 former 
Members of Congress for campaign finance reform legislation. They came 
out and indicated their support for the proposals of former Presidents 
Bush, Carter and Ford, expressing the need and hope for campaign 
finance reform legislation that includes a ban on soft money. This 
range of former Members of Congress goes from Howard Baker to Mark 
Hatfield to Alan Simpson, to Bob Michel on the Republican side, Rudy 
Boschwitz, Brock Adams, Mickey Edwards, to David Pryor on the Democrat 
side, George McGovern, Howell Heflin, Alan Cranston, and so on. And so 
former Members of this body who have been taken back from the fray of 
politics here in the Congress can step back and say, we need this 
reform and they support it wholeheartedly.
  So momentum is building in America for reform, but it is also 
building in this body and the support for the Bipartisan Campaign 
Integrity Act is also growing.
  What does this legislation do? First of all, it bans soft money to 
the national political parties, and this must be the linchpin of any 
significant reform legislation. This last week Charlie Trie was 
arrested. He submitted himself after the indictment was returned, and 
what happened? What are the allegations? They involve the chase, the 
inexplicable, inordinate, exaggerated chase of soft money during the 
last election cycle, and that is what led to the abuses that we saw, 
that was revealed so extensively in Senator Thompson's hearings. So 
this proposal bans soft money to the national political parties.
  The second thing it does, it indexes contribution limits to the rate 
of inflation, and this is important. An individual's contribution does 
not lose value, but it gradually increases as inflation increases. So 
this is important to individuals to keep the value of their 
contribution.
  The third thing it does is that it helps the political parties to 
raise the honest money, the hard dollars, the individual contributions, 
and we need to help the political parties whenever we accompany it by a 
ban on soft money to them.

[[Page H302]]

  The fourth thing that it does is it increases disclosure, or it 
increases information to the American public. It increases information 
that is available to them on how much candidates spend, on where they 
get their contributions, more timely disclosure. When it comes to issue 
groups that influence our political process, it increases information 
available to the public as to who the group is and how much money they 
are spending if it is on radio or television. That is what is 
Constitutional; that is what the courts will allow us to do in a 
constitutional framework without violating anyone's freedom of speech. 
That is what the legislation does. It is very simple, straightforward 
and bipartisan.
  What is unique about this legislation that sets it apart from other 
items of legislation that are being offered in this body? First of all, 
it is the result of a bipartisan process. We as freshmen, the Democrats 
and Republicans, met together for 4 months coming up with this 
legislation. The gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) was my Democrat 
counterpart that worked so diligently on this, and the gentleman from 
Montana (Mr. Hill) I see here in this body that supports this and 
helped us produce this. So it is unique legislation, we have worked 
hard on it, we are grateful to the leadership for giving us the 
encouragement and bringing this to a vote in March on the floor.

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