Thomas Foley: “let me first and foremost commend the gentleman from Arkansas for his good words on campaign finance reform. I join him…”

“let me first and foremost commend the gentleman from Arkansas for his good words on campaign finance reform. I join him in that pledge to ban soft money. We did a lot of campaign finance reform in the State of Florida. We reduced the size of the donation from PAC's and individuals. We cleaned up the process, and we made a difference. The American public needs to see real campaign finance reform. I am particularly impressed the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Hutchinson] has been so aggressive in this pursuit as a freshman in this Congress looking to change the way we do business, and I think it is vital. I think the American public distrusts politics, they do not like the way the system operates and clearly revelations that have been going on in the news media have embarrassed us further. I join him in the pursuit of that reform, soft money bans and other things that will lend some credibility to the U.S. Congress and what we do here. I also want to commend Secretary Madeleine Albright for her diligent pursuit of peace in the Middle East for the concerns that we all share in this country for peace and stability in the Middle East.”