Frank Pallone: “when the Republicans were in the minority, they would often challenge the Democratic leadership of the House to…”

“when the Republicans were in the minority, they would often challenge the Democratic leadership of the House to implement comprehensive campaign finance reform. We are now in the 3d year of the Republican majority, and the Speaker in fact has only brought one campaign finance reform bill to the floor, a bill, and I should mention that the Republican leadership knew would fail, and did in fact fail by over 250 votes. I guess the Republicans' fervent quest for reform has been tempered by the power of being in the majority. Campaign finance reform again is not a new issue to this Congress by any means. In fact, the House had passed a comprehensive campaign finance reform bill when Democrats were in the majority, but, as I mentioned previously, this was vetoed by President Bush. Last week President Clinton came to this Chamber and challenged this House to pass meaningful campaign finance reform. He made it a priority of his administration. He set July 4 as the deadline. I believe the House can certainly pass reform legislation by then. I think it would be a true test of our democracy, and it certainly is a challenge we must face this session.”