Claiborne Pell: “once again we have ventured into the treacherous shoals of self-regulation. In my 33 years in the Senate, we have…”

“once again we have ventured into the treacherous shoals of self-regulation. In my 33 years in the Senate, we have ventured into this area many times, and I have always tried to support reforms that will benefit the Senate as an institution. In my view, the Senate is a group of honest, hard-working people who have no desire to use their office for personal gain. And I have always believed that the best way to monitor our integrity is through public exposure. Today, as in the past, we are responding to the public's perception of the political process and the public's presumption of what our standards and motives may be. These perceptions and presumptions should be honored and dealt with, to be sure, but we should be under no illusion that they can be neutralized or satisfied by legislative fiat. In the final analysis, the only way to change or disprove public perceptions and presumptions is for each of us to demonstrate integrity in all our actions. Guidelines and rules are helpful, to be sure. But it seems to me that the best guidelines are the simplest. I always liked the simple, basic rule on gifts that was propounded by our late colleague, Senator Paul Douglas: "Don't accept anything unless it can be eaten, drunk or smoked within a week." I am troubled by the fact that the legislation before us today is 28 pages in length, including line after line of complicated exceptions.”