[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 15 (Friday, February 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E183-E184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN REFORM ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. BILL LUTHER

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 13, 2002

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2356) to 
     amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide 
     bipartisan campaign reform:

  Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Chairman, campaigns should be about the competition 
of ideas, not the competition of money between huge corporate donors 
and special interests. Allowing

[[Page E184]]

the big donors to derail our elections takes power away from the voters 
and threatens our democracy itself. Cleaning up our campaigns should be 
an issue we all support., Supporters of clean campaigns in both parties 
have stepped up to the plate to bring this important issue to a vote, 
and the time has come to give the American people the victory they 
deserve by passing the Shays-Meehan bipartisan reform bill.
  Good government watchdog groups have consistently recognized my home 
state of Minnesota as having some of the strongest clean campaign laws 
in the country. I am proud of those laws, which have increased the 
power of smaller donors, allowed the average citizen to have a 
prominent voice, reduced the influence of wealthy special interests, 
and restored confidence in the political process. I now urge my fellow 
representatives to implement tough campaign reform measures for federal 
elections.
  The key provision in the Shays-Meehan proposal is a ban on ``soft 
money''--the unregulated, unlimited donations from individuals and 
political action committees that are often used to run shady and 
misleading campaign commercials before an election. Eliminating the 
corrupting influence of soft money is the most basic reform we can make 
to begin cleaning up our election system and the Shays-Meehan bill is 
the only measure on the table today that addresses this pervasive 
problem.
  Our nation owes a debt to the authors of this legislation--
Representatives Shays and Meehan and Senators McCain and Feingold--for 
their tireless commitment to reform. I believe a basic turning point in 
this effort occurred during last year's presidential election when the 
public rallied around John McCain's message of reform. The public sent 
a strong message to the political establishment: they are tired of 
elected representatives who perpetuate a system that gives the 
advantage to large wealthy special interests. They are tired of 
politicians who resort to obscure parliamentary procedures to deny the 
American people the opportunity to have an honest debate on reform. 
They are tired of the current system and the overwhelming advantage 
that it gives to the incumbents. Now is our chance to enact true reform 
that the American people are demanding, a reform that has the potential 
to restore a new generation's faith in the political process.
  There has been a lot of focus from the political punditry about which 
political party will benefit from the passage of various reform 
proposals. This is the wrong approach to take when debating campaign 
reform proposals. The approach should be on passing legislation that 
benefits the American people. Our constituents have sent us a strong 
message that the system is broken. It is time we hear them and pass 
strong campaign finance reform legislation. It is the right thing to 
do. I urge the passage of the Shays-Meehan bipartisan campaign reform 
bill.

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