Anna Eshoo: “8 months ago the President asked the Congress to have a campaign finance reform bill ready for him to sign by the Fourth…”

“8 months ago the President asked the Congress to have a campaign finance reform bill ready for him to sign by the Fourth of July, Independence Day. I think perhaps the President should have then specified the year, 1997. What has happened? Nothing. No hearings, no markups, no bill, no reform, no action. Our campaign finance system is broken. It is out of control. Hearings and news reports continue to expose a corrosive and insidious system, a system that has cast a shadow of public disrespect, of doubt, of disillusionment, not only on our system, but on this institution. And we know that we can do much better. In fact, the American people insist on it; and they are right. They are ahead of this system, and they know that something can be done. Yet despite the hearings, the headlines and the public pressure, the majority continues to defer action, deny a vote and disregard the will of the American people. We insist that a campaign finance reform bill to ban soft money be brought to the floor of the House before the Congress adjourns this year.”