[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12964-12965]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it is time to pass meaningful campaign 
finance reform legislation. Let us take soft money out of politics, let 
us restore integrity to our political system.
  The bipartisan Shays-Meehan Campaign Reform Act has passed in this 
body twice before. We should finally move to make it law. Shays-Meehan 
bans soft money for national parties, it reins in campaign 
advertisements masquerading as issue advocacy, enhances disclosure of 
political expenditures, and provides the Federal Election Commission 
with the teeth it needs to enforce the law.
  Unfortunately, the Republican leadership is determined to drive a 
stake through the heart of all campaign finance reform. They have 
introduced a sham alternative that is intended to delay, distract, and 
to ultimately kill real reform. The bill will not clean up our campaign 
finance system but rather allow even more money to flow through it.
  Their bill would allow a wealthy couple to give $1.26 million in hard 
and

[[Page 12965]]

soft money to a national party in an election campaign, and it allows 
Federal candidates to raise unlimited amounts of soft money for State 
parties to spend on TV attack ads.
  Let us stand up for clean elections, let us stand up for good 
political discourse in this country, let us stand up for real campaign 
finance reform.

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