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

“the efforts of the bipartisan 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. Whether we want to admit it or not, the fact is that our campaign finance system is jeopardizing our 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 allowed under the law. Madam Speaker, our bill takes the bold and important step of banning soft money. In the last election cycle we witnessed an explosion in the amount of soft money. Democrats and Republicans combined to raise more than $260 million, and by 2000 it will be a billion dollars.”