Enforcement, Freedom of Speech Key to Campaign Finance Reform, Says Brady

Washington, D.C. -- As the U.S. House of Representatives begins heated debate next week on reforming outdated campaign finance laws, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) believes enforcement of current laws and freedom of speech must be preserved.

Brady, who has joined with freshmen House colleagues in the only non-partisan push for campaign finance reform, said, "New laws won't help if we don't first enforce the ones we have. As importantly, Congress must preserve the free expression of speech by individuals and organizations."

Brady is an original co-sponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Integrity Act of 1997 - commonly known as the "freshmen bill" - which Speaker Newt Gingrich has scheduled as the legislative vehicle around which floor debate will occur.

"The cost of these campaigns are out of control and getting crazier," said Brady. "The average cost for winning a competitive seat in Congress is now nearly $1 million...and rising. That means a lot of good people will never raise their hands to serve in Congress because they don't own a million dollars or know how to raise it. That's bad for the future of a country founded on representative government."

The freshman bill puts a premium on grassroots financing by banning soft money at the national level, indexing individual and PAC limits to inflation so that candidates can raise sufficient financial support from their district, and requiring congressional candidates to fully disclose their contributions each month.

Unlike the Shays-Meehan bill being pushed by Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and Republican Chris Shays, the freshman bill preserves for organizations the constitutional freedom of speech known as "issue advocacy". Only organizations who spend large sums in political advertising designed to promote or defeat a specific candidate by name are affected, in which case they must make public basic information such as their name, address, and total amount spent annually on the ads.

"The freshman bill is common-sense, it is constitutional and it avoids the extremes without providing an edge to any party. That balance it what differentiates is from the other 'campaign advantage' bills being pushed in Congress under the guise of campaign reform."