[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5260-5261]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Denham). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, last week, mailman Doug Hughes flew a 
gyrocopter onto the Capitol lawn to make a point about the influence of 
money in politics. While I don't condone violating restricted airspace 
and putting innocent people at risk by flying a gyrocopter onto the 
Capitol lawn, Mr. Hughes does have a point about the pervasive 
influence of money in politics. I have seen it get worse and worse 
during my 20 years in Congress.
  The Citizens United decision by the United States Supreme Court in 
2010 created super-PACs and multi-millionaires who buy candidates. As 
of April 8, 2015, there were 1,360 super-PACs in existence that 
controlled nearly $700 million in the 2014 election cycle, according to 
OpenSecrets.org. The American people have lost confidence in the House 
and in the Senate partially because super-PACs influence candidates and 
politicians.
  Too many times I have seen bills come to the floor of the House that 
seem influenced by money. Just last week, the House voted on H.R. 650, 
the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act of 2015, which does 
nothing but line the pockets of Warren Buffett by enabling his near-
monopoly of the mobile home industry to strap poor people with higher 
interest rates while his companies are being protected from government 
regulations against predatory lending.
  It is my disgust at this influence of money in politics that has led 
me to be a cosponsor of H.R. 20, the Government by the People Act, 
introduced by my colleague Congressman John Sarbanes. H.R. 20 would 
curb the influence of super-PACs so that small donors can have a voice 
again.
  We in Congress owe the American people a vote on this bill so we can 
inspire confidence in our democratic process. House leadership should 
bring this bill to the floor, but I know it won't happen. There isn't 
the stomach

[[Page 5261]]

for reform bills in this Congress, even for bipartisan reform bills. 
Maybe it does take a statement like Mr. Hughes' to bring this issue 
into the national debate and to make Congress address our out-of-
control fund-raising.
  I ask my colleagues in both parties in the House of Representatives 
to look seriously at the John Sarbanes bill, because the Government by 
the People Act will help to restore the confidence of the American 
people. We cannot stop what is already public law, and we cannot change 
Citizens United unless we go back through the legal process, but we can 
have an alternative. That is what the John Sarbanes bill does, so I 
hope Republicans and Democrats will look seriously at becoming 
cosponsors.
  I ask God to bless America.

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