[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21750-21751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             ETHICS REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Space) is recognized 
during morning-hour debate for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SPACE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask support for the Honest 
Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. I hail from Ohio's 18th 
Congressional District, a district of proud, hardworking people who 
understand the virtues of personal responsibility, a district whose 
constituency was betrayed in years past by a Member of this body who 
crossed a line. My predecessor is now in prison and he has been 
imprisoned for having, once again, betrayed his constituents and sold 
his vote. He became mired in and then consumed by a scandal involving 
lobbyists. This legislation helps further break the link that exists 
between lobbyists, legislators and the wealthy clients that lobbyists 
represent. It represents yet another positive step forward. It's not 
the end. It represents more of the beginning of a process whereby 
bribery will become deinstitutionalized from this body. It represents a 
process whereby we can make decisions in this body on an informed, 
rational basis designed specifically to benefit the good people who put 
us here.
  Early on in this Congress, we banned trips and gifts and meals from 
lobbyists, a good first step. Now we are bringing transparency to the 
system. But it can't stop here. My colleague from Connecticut raises 
the prospect of an independent organization to review potential 
breaches of law, something that I associate myself with, but we need 
yet to go beyond even that with

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aggressive and comprehensive campaign finance reform. I support this 
measure because I think it represents a good first step along that 
process, but again I urge my colleagues to give serious consideration 
to taking it yet farther, and that is again with the 
deinstitutionalization of bribery through comprehensive campaign 
finance reform.

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