[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 46 (Thursday, April 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2302-H2303]
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 Arkansas (Mr. Hutchinson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to 
address an important issue that really took a different spin this week. 
As we entered this week in legislative business, I did not expect 
campaign finance reform to be an issue that was going to be on the 
front lines of legislative business this week nor next week.
  But it took a turn this week, and it goes to show the legislative 
process works, and I want to express my appreciation, I think the 
appreciation of the American public, that the leadership indicated 
their willingness to have a full and fair and open debate on campaign 
finance reform. The procedure that has been outlined could not be more 
fair and open than having a base bill that comes to the floor of the 
House, which is the bipartisan Campaign Integrity Act, the freshman 
bill that is a bipartisan bill that addresses campaign finance reform, 
and then it is subject to amendments. It is a full and free open debate 
that no one can quarrel about as to its fairness.
  That is what the American people expect, and that is what they have 
received, and I think it is a tribute to the leadership for recognizing 
this, responding to it in a very fair fashion.

                              {time}  2015

  Now, they have selected the freshman bill, it is called. It is really 
the result of a freshman task force, as the base bill that would come 
to the House on campaign reform. If you look at this bill, it is 
bipartisan in nature, but it is also bipartisan in process, and that is 
why it is so unique.
  Let me talk just for a second about how that bill, I suspect, might 
have been chosen. If you go back to the beginning of this Congress, the 
two respective freshmen classes, the Democrats and the Republicans, 
said let's work together on an issue, and they choose finance campaign 
reform.
  A task force of six Republicans and six Democrats met together over 
the course of 5 months, heard experts on constitutional law. We heard 
from the Democratic Party and heard from the Republican Party as to 
what they believed needed to be done.
  We heard from the American people. We heard from academia. We heard 
from everyone imaginable; from the unions to the business side. And 
from those hearings we learned a lot, but we also came up with a 
proposal. We said we need to avoid the extremes. That is

[[Page H2303]]

what has killed this issue time and time again in Congress. Avoid the 
extremes.
  Let us concentrate on what we can agree on, the consensus, the common 
ground. And that resulted in this bill that was produced by this task 
force, but now has over 70 cosponsors, both Republicans and Democrats, 
both Liberals and Conservatives. It crosses the political spectrum. Not 
only is it fair, but it is an improvement in our system.
  Now, it is not just a freshman bill. We have representatives all 
across the spectrum, every class that has sponsored this, that has 
joined in support of this. We need more support for this bill as it 
moves to the floor.
  What does the bill do? First of all, I think it is very important to 
say that this is not a Republican leadership bill; it is not a Democrat 
bill. It is a bipartisan bill in process, in form and result, and I 
hope that we can continue that process as we move through the House.
  This bill, first of all, bans the corporate money from the 
multinational corporations that comes in huge sums to our national 
political parties. It bans the contributions in the same form from the 
labor unions that go to the national political parties. So it is 
balanced in banning soft money to the national parties.
  The second thing it does, besides reducing the influence of special 
interests, it increases the role of individuals in our campaign 
process. It increases their contribution limits. It says they should 
have a greater role in it. It reduces special interests, increases the 
role of individuals, and then it increases the role of the American 
public by giving them more information, more information on who is 
affecting the campaigns, how much money is being spent, what groups are 
spending that money. And that is the information that they need to make 
the correct decisions on campaigns, and who are trying to influence 
them.
  It is a basic bill that is good campaign reform, that is true reform, 
and I am delighted to have an opportunity for it to come to the floor, 
subject to amendment, as we debate this issue.
  So I think that we have come a long way. I look forward to the next 3 
or 4 weeks as we debate ideas and we have disagreements; both on the 
Republican and Democrat side. But what would be more fair to the 
American public than to debate ideas on the floor of this House and let 
the majority rule govern? I think that is what democracy is about. That 
is what this institution is about.
  I addressed some eighth graders over the break at Alma High School. 
They asked me some questions. One was, why did you want to go to 
Congress? The answer was to reduce cynicism and distrust of our 
institutions of government.
  What we can do by having this full and fair debate is to increase 
confidence, to increase respect by the American public, and we have 
done a great service. In addition, we have a good chance of passing 
meaningful reform, send it to the Senate, and let us see what they do.

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