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




                   BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN INTEGRITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Montana (Mr. Hill) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I want to join my friend and colleague, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson) in rising today to speak about 
the Bipartisan Campaign Integrity Act. I first want to acknowledge the 
hard work and leadership that he has provided in helping us bring this 
measure forward. This process started out with 6 freshmen Republicans, 
6 freshmen Democrats who decided to form a task force, study the 
problems with campaign finances, and definitely a bipartisan proposal 
and a bipartisan solution to the problem. Mr. Hutchinson has provided 
outstanding leadership in helping us bring it this far. From that group 
of 12 people, we now have 74 cosponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign 
Integrity Act.
  I want to remind my colleagues what the problem is. The problem that 
we have is soft money. Soft money is out of control. Just 4 years ago, 
5 years ago now, both political parties, Democrats and Republicans, 
raised about $35 million in soft money. In the last campaign cycle, 
they raised about $270 million in soft money. Labor unions added over 
$100 million more to the process. Soft money is out of control. All we 
have to do is read the headlines about the problems that are going on 
in the White House, or in both political parties, and the influence 
that labor unions and corporations have over the political process now 
because of the excesses of soft money.

                              {time}  1900

  I want to remind my colleagues what soft money is, because as 
candidates we cannot accept soft money. What soft money is is funds 
that come from corporations, from labor union dues, and wealthy 
individuals that is in excess of contribution limits that they can make 
now.
  Substantially, this money is unreported. We do not know where it 
comes from and, for the most part, we do not know how it is spent. But 
we can ban soft money in our political parties and not limit the right 
of individuals to speak out on issues.
  As candidates, we are affected by soft money, because independent 
groups often spend huge sums of money to try to influence the political 
process, either in support of where we stand or in opposition to where 
we stand.
  What can we do? Well, we can begin by supporting the bipartisan 
Campaign Integrity Act. It bans soft money, and it does make it easier 
to raise the good money, which we call hard money.
  We also need to make sure that workers have the right to choose 
whether or not they want to contribute to the political process and to 
protect them from those abuses by supporting the Paycheck Protection 
Act, and we can give members of other organizations that same right of 
protection.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people want us to reform campaign finance; 
and if we talk to the Members of this House privately, they all believe 
that we need to reform it and that we ought to reform it. The problem 
is that the majority of the American people doubt that we actually have 
the courage and the conviction to get it done.
  Mr. Speaker, I would urge my colleagues today to join as cosponsors 
of the bipartisan Campaign Integrity Act and the Paycheck Protection 
Act. We need to ban soft money. We need to protect workers. We can do 
this job when this comes to the floor in 6 weeks. I urge my colleagues 
to support it.

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