    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [September 13, 1997]
    [Pages 1159-1160]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    September 13, 1997

        Good morning. America has had a summer of significant achievement,
    as we are working to protect our values and prepare our people for the
    21st century. The balanced budget shows what we can do when we put aside
    partisanship and work for the public interest and our children's future.
    But America can't rest. One of the most important things we can do in
    the next phase of our progress is to pass long-overdue campaign finance
    reform.
        Since I became President, I've worked hard to reform the political
    system to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. I've acted within
    my executive authority to limit the ability of important executive
    branch appointees to work for foreign governments when they leave
    office. I've worked with Congress to reduce the size of Government to
    its lowest level since President Kennedy was here and to pass sweeping
    lobby reform, limiting gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers. We've also
    gotten the line item veto so the President can cancel wasteful spending,
    but we haven't succeeded in reforming the campaign finance laws, though
    we've been trying for nearly 5 years.
        The campaign finance system we have now, which is over 20 years old,
    has simply been overwhelmed by the rising cost of campaigns, largely
    advertising and other communication costs, and the flood of campaign
    cash required to meet those costs. The amount of money raised by both
    political parties now doubles every 4 years. And the candidates
    themselves are caught up in a fundraising arms race, spending more and
    more time raising more and more money, which is bound to raise more
    questions in the public's mind. The campaign system is broken, and every
    one of us must take responsibility for fixing it.
        I'm doing what I can within the executive branch. I've asked our
    Federal Communications Commission to require media outlets to provide
    candidates with free air time, especially TV air time, which will reduce
    the need for more campaign money. I've also asked the Federal Election
    Commission to ban the large soft-money contributions to political
    parties from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals. And the
    Justice Department has indicated it will go to court, when appropriate,
    to defend the constitutionality of limited campaign spending.

    [[Page 1160]]

        But there is no substitute for strong, bipartisan campaign finance
    reform legislation passed by the Congress. I proposed such reform when I
    ran for President, and I have backed reform legislation every year since
    then. And in every single year, reform has been blocked in the Congress
    by a filibuster in the United States Senate, a procedure by which only
    41 of the 100 Senators can stop a bill from coming to a vote. Now the
    special interests and their allies in Congress are poised to strike
    again, waiting to quietly smother reform with another filibuster. But
    this year they won't get away with it, at least quietly, because
    Senators John McCain, a Republican, and Russ Feingold, a Democrat, have
    pledged to bring their reform legislation to a vote in the Senate this
    month, and all America will be watching.
        On Thursday all 45 Democratic Senators--every single Democrat in the
    Senate--wrote to the Senate leadership in support. I'm very proud of
    them. I'm also proud that citizens' groups, spurred by business
    executives and civic leaders, have gathered one million signatures on a
    petition to Congress advocating campaign finance reform. I'm grateful to
    Presidents Ford and Carter and Bush, all of whom have called for reform.
    They are being joined by dozens of former lawmakers. And the American
    public clearly wants action.
        This is a time of testing for Members of the United States Senate.
    The opponents of reform are gearing up to keep it from coming to a vote
    at all. Let's be clear: A vote to filibuster campaign reform is a vote
    to keep special interest money and kill reform; a vote to filibuster is
    a vote for the status quo. A Senator who votes ``yes'' on a filibuster
    is voting ``yes'' to soft money and ``yes'' to keep the cost of
    campaigns exploding and ``no'' on reform. That vote will be hard to
    explain to the American people.
        This year, despite all the odds, we've got the best chance in a
    generation for reform. Throughout our history, the American people have
    overcome the resistance of entrenched interests to expand our democracy
    and to keep it strong in changing times. Let's make this autumn a season
    of reform in our campaign finance laws.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 6:36 p.m. on September 12 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on
    September 13.