Statement on senate passage of campaign finance reform legislation

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 25, 2002

March 20, 2002

Like many Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, I support commonsense reforms to end abuses in our campaign finance system. The reforms passed today, while flawed in some areas, still improve the current system overall, and I will sign them into law.

The legislation makes some important progress on the timeliness of disclosure, individual contribution limits, and banning soft money from corporations and labor unions, but it does present some legitimate constitutional questions. I continue to believe the best reform is full and timely disclosure of campaign contributions.