Bill Pascrell: “the efforts of the freshman task force have given us a very real chance for meaningful campaign finance reform. I am…”

“the efforts of the freshman task force have given us a very real chance for meaningful campaign finance reform. I am committed to seeing that this opportunity is not lost. It is incumbent upon this Congress that we honestly address the many flaws in the current system by which we finance our campaigns. I believe the very credibility of not just this Congress but of the entire institution is at stake. The sad reality is that the American public holds Congress in very low esteem. We cannot reasonably expect to effectively carry out our duties as Congressmen if we lack credibility. Whether we want to admit it or not, the fact is that our campaign finance system is jeopardizing our own credibility. We should not fool ourselves into believing that the problem is only the illegal activities that occur during campaigns. Quite to the contrary, the real problems stem from what is legal. I hope that we will address, Mr. Speaker, the growing problem of the way soft money is influencing this system; and the sooner we do it, the better we will be in terms of getting back our own credibility.”