Frank Riggs: “this Congress, the 104th Congress, has made reform a priority. In fact the reforms that we have enacted to date... have…”

“this Congress, the 104th Congress, has made reform a priority. In fact the reforms that we have enacted to date... have been enacted through this House of Representatives on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis: The Congressional Accountability Act, which applies the same laws to Congress as the rest of the country and basically makes Congress work under the same laws that it imposes on American families and businesses; the very strict gift ban that was enacted last year; and very comprehensive lobbying reforms. So it is a shame, really, that the gentleman comes to the well and attempts to make congressional reform and campaign reform a partisan issue. But to the extent that it becomes a partisan issue, I should tell the gentleman that I very well remember from my service in the 102d Congress the House of Representatives under Democratic control, and I very well remember the House bank and post office scandals... our Nation's outdated and failed welfare system is definitely broken and it is in desperate need of major repair. We must fix it now. Time is simply running out.”