Bill Pascrell: “the freshman campaign finance bill takes the bold and important step of banning soft money. In the last election…”

“the freshman campaign finance bill takes the bold and important step of banning soft money. In the last election Democrats and Republicans combined to raise more than $260 million in soft money. That was a 206 percent increase from 1992. If we extrapolate, when we get to the year 2000 we will be spending $1 billion in soft money. We divide the House into two groups: Those who think there is not enough money in the pot to spend doing elections, and those who think there are far too many dollars to be spent. And the problem is not what is illegal, so much as what is legal that we accept. Let us bring credibility back to the Congress. Let us have real campaign finance reform, and let us not think that the public is going to accept the sham that went on last night.”