Speech #1050162810

Under current law. one does not have to be a United States citizen to make a campaign contribution to a candidate for Federal office. My amendment would establish that only United States citizens or United States nationals would be permitted to make an individual contribution to any candidate running for Federal office. Indeed. earlier this year following up on introductions by the gentleman from Nebraska and the gentleman from California this House. by an overwhelming margin. sought to ban contributions to Federal elections by noncitizens. My amendment would also allow the request of the gentleman from the territory of American Samoa . that would allow noncitizens and U.S. nationals. many of whom reside in the territory of American Samoa. to contribute to Federal campaigns. I believe fundamentally that American citizens should determine the outcome of American Federal elections. Mr. Chairman. again. let me just reiterate what this amendment does. Essentially it allows United States citizens. including United States nationals. to determine the outcome of Federal elections. Currently. noncitizens can contribute to Federal elections. I think that is bad policy. I think that we have seen in the last couple of years how noncitizens have played a major role in funneling illegal money to Federal elections. Indeed. just in todays paper we see how a Thailand firm lobbyist was indicted as a conduit of campaign cash. The indictment brings to total the number 11 of persons charged so far in the Justice Departments campaign finance investigation which began in November of 1996. and all of them have a very similar trait in that they funnel money through people who are residents of the United States. but are noncitizens. Mr. Chairman. I think that is why we have before us an amendment that just a couple of months ago by a vote of 369to43. this House overwhelmingly banned the contributions to Federal elections for noncitizens. As I stated earlier. I think this would go a long way to bring integrity back into the system we have before us. and essentially and in effect. allow foreign influence of the United States political process to be kept to a minimum.