Washington, DC - This weekend's news of outrageous bonuses paid to executives at bailout recipient AIG underscores the need to uproot the corrupting pay-to-play system of campaign funding, according to five campaign finance reform organizations.

A new report by Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation found that Wall Street interests spent more than $5 billion to influence Congress over the past decade, with $1.7 billion of that total coming in the form of campaign contributions to federal candidates, political parties, and Political Action Committees (PACs). The report outlined a dozen policies that Congress adopted (or failed to adopt) that directly led to the financial crisis.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, executives at AIG and AIG's PAC have donated $9.3 million to federal candidates, parties, and PACs since the 1990 election cycle. Donations from AIG executives and its PAC have been split evenly between Republicans and Democrats."

Congress has been dependent on Wall Street money for too long," said Change Congress, Common Cause, Democracy Matters, Public Campaign, and U.S. PIRG in a joint statement. "If the American people are to trust Congress's ability to provide oversight of the financial system, we first need to sever the connection between special interest money and our elected officials.

"Members of Congress ought to work for us rather than spend their time fundraising from the wealthy and well-connected," the statement continued. "We urge Congress to pass the Fair Elections Now Act during this session."

Modeled after working laws in states and cities around the country, the Fair Elections Now Act would provide qualified candidates a limited amount of funding if they agree to reject all big donations. Bipartisan legislation will be introduced in both chambers this month.