Campaign Finance Reform

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, here we are a few short weeks before national elections, so it is a good time to take account of the outlandish flood of money pouring into the Presidential campaign. The American people don't want this out-of-control spending anymore.

Why should it cost 16 times more to conduct an election in 2016 than it did in 1980 in inflation-adjusted dollars? The last time I looked, we still have just one President, 100 Senators, and 435 Congressional Districts. So why the outlandish increase in campaign spending? The public gets sick and tired of the TV campaign ads. It costs a fortune. All the while, the public is becoming more disillusioned and distrustful of our very instruments of government.

We need campaign finance reform. It is far too much that candidates have to raise today. Actually, in 1980, it cost $107 million for President Carter and President Reagan to conduct that Presidential campaign. Already this year, $1.6 billion has been spent--16 times as much as 1980.

It is no surprise that, of the largest givers of the financial industry, not one of them has gone to jail after the financial crash of 2008.

My constitutional amendment, H.J. Res. 38, grants Congress and our States the power to set limits on the amounts of contributions and expenditures with respect to candidates in Federal, State, and local elections.
So when the Presidential candidates pass through your town, ask them exactly what they intend to do about out-of-control campaign spending and when they intend to do it. How about making campaign finance reform the first bill they send up to Congress in 2017 as H.R. 1.

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