[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4697-H4698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONGRESS NEEDS TO ACT CREDIBLY WITH REGARD TO PROMISES TO REFORM 
                            CAMPAIGN FINANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sununu). Under a previous order of the

[[Page H4698]]

House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I have been in this chamber 11 years and I 
have seen days that are very satisfying and days that are not. I, 
obviously, am very proud to be a Republican Member of this Congress and 
am proud that in 1994 that Republicans had an opportunity to lead this 
Congress, to help get our country's financial house in order, to save 
our trust funds, and to move from a caretaking society to a caring 
society, where people have their hopes and dreams more likely to occur.
  I was also proud to be part of a 1994 Congress that took office in 
1995 that was able to move forward with congressional accountability, 
getting Congress under all the laws that we had exempted ourselves 
from. Congress had exempted itself from the civil rights law, it had 
exempted itself from fair pay, the 40-hour workweek, time and a half. 
The private sector had to do it, Congress did not.
  Congress had exempted itself from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and 
Health Act, which basically meant that the Congress did not have to 
abide by safety procedures for its employees. A Member of Congress 
could not be sued by an employee for sexual harassment. We exempted 
ourselves from things that the private sector came under. We did until 
the 104th Congress, the last Congress, in which we passed congressional 
accountability.
  But we did not stop there. And we did it, candidly, on a bipartisan 
basis, which is the best way to get reform through. We did not just try 
to ram it through. We worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
and got wide support for it. We did the same thing with gift ban and 
lobby disclosure. We banned, frankly, all gifts, something that was 
long needed certainly to bring them under control, because Members 
could receive unlimited gifts of meals and wine and so on. They did not 
even come under the gift ban. They could get $100 at a clip, $250, 
during the course of a year. We wanted to bring it down to what the 
Senate had, but the Speaker wanted to ban all gifts, and I concurred in 
that.
  We also, for the first time since 1946, we also amended our lobby 
laws to really get people who are lobbyists to register and to report 
who they try to influence and how much they spend. And it has made a 
significant difference in identifying who really is trying to influence 
this place. These were reforms that happened under the 104th Congress 
and, to its credit, on a bipartisan basis.
  But we did not deal with campaign finance reform. I guess three out 
of four is pretty good, but it was my hope and my expectation that a 
reform-minded Congress would deal with campaign finance reform; and 
that we would reform our laws, the unlimited soft money that has 
contributed to the political parties, the over $260 million that was 
given collectively to both parties that was not used for party 
building, was not used for registration, but was used to influence 
directly individual races, circumventing the campaign law, unlimited 
sums by individuals, corporations, labor unions and other interest 
groups.
  I was hoping that we would deal with sham issue ads, the truly 
campaign ads, call them that and place them under the campaign laws, 
freedom of speech, under the rules that everyone else has to abide by; 
that we would codify Beck and make sure that nonunion members do not 
have to pay political costs to a union for a political activity they do 
not agree with; improve FEC disclosure enforcement; deal with the abuse 
in franking and require that foreign money and fund-raising on 
government property stop. Because right now it is illegal to do that 
for campaign money, but it is not illegal to do it for soft money. So 
we need to make sure people know that, one, we ban soft money, but if 
there is money that is not under hard money, that foreigners cannot do 
it and they cannot raise this money in government buildings.
  It had been my hope and expectation we would deal with this issue 
last year, but we did not. There was a promise we would deal with it in 
February and, at the latest in March, but we did not; and then a 
promise we would deal with it in May, and we have not. And so promises 
are becoming empty words. It is important that my side of the aisle 
live up to its agreement, live up to its agreement to deal with 
campaign finance reform.
  I fault my colleagues on the other side for not wanting to deal with 
the abuses in the White House, I fault my colleagues on this side of 
the aisle for not wanting to reform the system. We need to do both. We 
need to hold the abuses of the White House accountable, and we need to 
reform the system. We need to do both to be truly credible. And I hope 
and pray that in the days and weeks to come we do that.

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