Mike Thompson: “this is a good day for the Senate. It demonstrates once again that this body can respond to its public's needs. Even the…”

“this is a good day for the Senate. It demonstrates once again that this body can respond to its public's needs. Even the casual observer must agree that our change from a system of the small contributor to the huge contributor is not good for this country. To those who say we are launching off into uncharted waters, that we are unsure how this might affect us as politicians or our political committees in Washington, I say that we as elected officials can never be harmed if our country is benefited. We as elected officials can never be harmed if we are doing something that increases the public trust. And if we are, Mr. President, so be it, because we must know that we are doing the right thing. Mr. President, twenty-seven years ago Congress decided to fix a campaign finance system that was clearly broken. The American public was scandal-weary and increasingly cynical about the integrity of the political process. In 1974, the President signed into law the Federal Election Campaign Act. Unions and corporations had long been prohibited from contributing to campaigns, and that year Congress decided to limit the amount of money an individual could give to candidates and parties to avoid corruption, and just as important, the appearance of corruption, in our system. Those limits on contributions were upheld by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo.…”