Patsy T. Mink: “I take this time again to call upon the leadership of the House of Representatives to listen to the cries for reform…”

“I take this time again to call upon the leadership of the House of Representatives to listen to the cries for reform from the people of this country. The Republicans are always saying that they are on the top of the issues that the people cry out for. I cannot think of anything that is more of concern to the people of this country than the articles that they keep reading in the newspaper about hundreds of thousands of dollars that are coming into our national parties and the huge political committees out of control, without regulation, without accountability. Mr. Speaker, we know that these contributions are having a serious impact not only upon the kind of corrupt legislation that sneaks through this House at midnight without our knowledge, but also a corrupting influence on the public's attitude about elections. For ourselves, when we put out our campaign solicitations we put right on it that the limitation is $1,000 per election. The PAC's know they have $5,000. Why can we not regulate soft money and ban it completely?”