[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 51 (Wednesday, April 14, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues in the Blue 
Dog Caucus, especially the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) and the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner), for their leadership in helping to 
bring campaign finance reform to the forefront of the agenda in this 
session.
  I also want to thank the freshman Democrats who have been so helpful 
with this effort, and I want to thank the gentleman from Connecticut 
(Mr. Shays) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan), who have 
been the leaders of making this legislation come together.
  This is a bipartisan issue which demands bipartisan action. Both 
Democrats and Republicans support the Shays-Meehan reform bill to help 
restore sanity to our system of political campaigns. It is a first step 
but we need to start somewhere, and that place is here and that place 
is now and that time is now.
  Unfortunately, the Republican leadership of the House for the past 2 
years has been dedicated to stifling these bipartisan efforts to clean 
up political campaigns. First it was death by amendment. Now it is 
death by delay. Well, it is now or never. In baseball, wait until next 
year is the perpetual excuse for coming in last. Wait until August is 
another excuse for why the House will not pass campaign finance reform 
again this year.
  If we want to clean up the political campaign system, now is the time 
and here is the chance. I urge every Member, both Democrat and 
Republican, to sign this discharge petition. It is a fair petition. It 
is a fair rule. Let us get campaign reform done now, not later.

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