Political Quotes

“I want to make sure my colleagues understand the amendment before us. My amendment is to prohibit all political contributions from political action committees. I think it is important for the record to note that, since the passage of the Federal Election Campaign Act, the number of PAC's has grown from 680 in 1974 to 4,192 in 1992. Think of that growth when you look at the impact of political action committees as we reflect on the merits of reform legislation. PAC contributions increased from $12.5 million to $180 million, which is an increase of more than 400 percent in real terms. In 1992, 55 percent of the House winners received more than half their contributions from PAC's. The situation is worse than is reflected by these numbers, because almost all corporate and trade PAC money, 90 percent, went to incumbents. Almost all won reelection. So I encourage my colleagues to reflect a little bit on how the American public is going to view this vote. Are they going to view it as business as usual where there is an effort to vote down or table my amendment to prohibit political action committee contributions coming in? This legislation would prohibit a Senator specifically from accepting any gift, directly or indirectly, from a political action committee. Banning PAC contributions was really a key part in the Republican campaign reform bill. I simply extend that concept to ban contributions from lobbyists as well.”