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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release June 12, 1997

President's Statement on the FEC Ruling

I applaud the Federal Election Commission's unanimous decision to begin to consider my request that they act to ban soft money in federal elections. This is an important step in our effort to reform our elections and restore the trust of the American people in their political system.

As I said in my petition to the FEC, the rules governing our system of financing federal election campaigns are sorely out of date. The system has been overwhelmed by a tide of money, raised in amounts and in ways that could not have been contemplated when the system was created two decades ago. I believe that the FEC has the authority and the obligation to take dramatic action, and I am pleased that five congressional sponsors of bipartisan campaign finance reform, led by Congressmen Shays and Meehan, have filed a similar petition before the commission.

I urge the FEC to take the next step and begin the process of writing new rules that will ban soft money. I hope this action will encourage Congress to enact comprehensive, bipartisan campaign finance reform.

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