[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1690-H1691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM GIVEN SHORT SHRIFT IN HOUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, as I listened to this afternoon's 
disgraceful announcement given to us, I gather, with some glee by the 
Majority leader, that the American people would be denied any free and 
fair debate on the issue of campaign finance reform, I could not help 
but reflect on how this Congress began back in January of 1997.
  Mr. Speaker, we assembled here on this floor to begin the people's 
business. We have come now through the full year of 1997 and well into 
1998. It was on that very first day in January of 1997 that we cast a 
vote on the issue of campaign finance reform and were denied an 
opportunity to move forward on it in this Congress. And repeatedly, 
over the course of 1997 and 1998, there have been those of us, both 
Democrats and Republicans, who have come to this floor asking not to 
have it exactly our way, the way we would write a campaign finance 
bill, but to have a free and fair debate of this issue that goes to the 
core of the problems that surround this institution, the Congress and 
the Government of the United States and the way that it operates.
  Over that time period, we first were told by some that we could 
accomplish the issue of campaign finance reform in time for our 
Nation's birthday, on July 4 of last year. That time came and went. I 
think some looked to that date, because a couple of years earlier 
Speaker Gingrich went up to New Hampshire and shook hands and smiled 
with President Clinton and said that they would move forward on real 
campaign finance reform. That was in 1995. He delayed for a year and 
then engaged in the kind of sham maneuver we have seen this afternoon 
in order to kill campaign finance reform in 1996.
  So we came to the fall of last year, after many speeches and many 
demands for action on campaign finance reform and, lo and behold, the 
majority leader, the same gentleman from Texas who stood before us 
today to kill campaign finance reform, he announced that we would have 
action on campaign finance reform last fall before the Congress 
recessed. Of course, as we all know, that time went by and no action 
occurred. No debate on any proposal was permitted.
  But we heard, with some degree of incredulity I suppose, as we 
listened to the discussion on the last day of that session, the 
Republican leadership assembled upstairs in front of the press and they 
announced a great task force. They had all of these proposals they were 
going to put together and they were going to put a Republican fix on 
the campaign finance reform system and they were going to be ready to 
debate that when we gathered here in 1998.
  Well, now we are in 1998, and we reached the day yesterday when they 
were going to present their great proposal, and they have since found 
now that they have presented it, that it is being rejected by the 
majority of Republicans. And so they have decided to pull down that 
proposal and to deny us full and fair debate of that, because if we 
began debating that fully and fairly, we might be able to offer a 
motion to recommit it to the committee and get some genuine reform of 
the campaign finance system.
  So, Mr. Speaker, on a day when many Members of this Congress will be 
traveling to New Mexico to honor our distinguished colleague, the late 
Steve Schiff, at his funeral, on that day they have scheduled the 
debate in which any of the Members who will be traveling to the funeral 
will be unable to participate. And should they get back here in time to 
vote on Monday night, if only a majority of this body votes to approve 
campaign finance reform, it will be defeated because Speaker Gingrich 
and Majority Leader Armey and, to hear the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Armey) say it, all of the Republican

[[Page H1691]]

leadership has agreed on one thing: The only way they will permit any 
Democrat or any Republican to discuss and debate the issue of campaign 
finance reform is in a contrived procedure designed for one purpose and 
one purpose only, and that is to ensure that campaign finance is dead 
and gone for this session, that nothing will happen.
  Mr. Speaker, why is this issue, which frankly, as we travel around 
the country, we do not hear on the tips of the tongues of the ordinary 
working people of this country, why is it so important? Well, the 
reason that it is so critical that we have a full debate is that it 
goes to every other issue that occurs in this Congress. Because 
increasingly, there are Americans out there who say that in this 
Congress we do not decide issues, whatever they might be, in terms of 
what is good for America. Rather, we decide them principally on the 
basis of who gave how much to whom and how often they did it.
  It is that kind of corrupting influence in our democracy, to the 
extent it actually occurs, and more importantly perhaps to the extent 
that that is the way the American people feel about this system and 
they lose faith and confidence in our democracy because of the role of 
big money and corrupting this system, that this is so critical.
  Perhaps some in America are concerned with our tax system or with 
Social Security or education or child care. If we are to deal with any 
of those issues constructively, we have to reform this system, and that 
is why today's action is so disgraceful.

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