[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7254-H7255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            LOBBYING REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Ehrlich] is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. EHRLICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about a very 
important issue, really one of the issues that I believe we were sent 
here to address, which is lobbying reform, ending taxpayer funded 
lobbying by special interests, Mr. Speaker. And the problem is one of 
the best kept secrets in this town and on this floor.
  Special interests lobby for taxpayers' money and then use that 
taxpayers' money to create political operations that serve to lobby for 
even additional money. It is a vicious cycle, Mr. Speaker. It is 
taxpayer abuse, and it is an outrage.
  More than 40,000 special interests received at least 39 billion, Mr. 
Speaker, that is with a B, dollars in federal grants during 1990. 
Because accounting records are not complete and because some records 
are not available for inspection, there is no way of knowing how much 
taxpayers' money is being used to direct lobbying and political 
efforts. There are, however, specific examples, Mr. Speaker, of 
recipients of federal grants that lobby the government.
  Examples of abuse, Mr. Speaker, on Flag Day in June, the ABA, the 
American Bar Association, staged a rally at the Capitol to protest a 
proposed constitutional amendment protecting the desecration of the 
American flag. Last year, the ABA received more than $10 million in 
grants in Washington. The Nature Conservancy used a $44,000 grant from 
the Department of Commerce to lobby for defeat of a Florida referendum.
  At the request of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the National Fish 
and Wildlife Federation lobbied to protect the National Biological 
Service from cuts in FY 1995 rescissions. The foundation has received 
hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Interior 
Department.
  Since 1993, Mr. Speaker, the EPA has distributed more than $90 
million in federal grants to more than 150 special interests, including 
the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other 
groups that are lobbying against the regulatory reform component of the 
Contract with America, an issue near and dear to my heart because it 
currently formed the focal point of our campaign for this House.
  The federal dollars also make many special interests appear to be a 
larger force in the political arena than they would be if they relied 
solely on private business. This is a very important point, Mr. 
Speaker.
  For example, the National Council of Senior Citizens receives more 
than 96 percent, that is 96 percent of its funding from this Congress. 
AARP receives 66 percent; Planned Parenthood, 33 percent, et cetera.
  Because special interests do not open their books for public 
inspection, there is no way to guarantee that they are not using 
taxpayer dollars for political advocacy. In many cases, however, these 
federal dollars free up the group's private resources to be spent in 
direct political lobbying and other advocacy activities.

[[Page H 7255]]

  Mr. Speaker, Representatives Istook, McIntosh, and myself have a bill 
to stop this taxpayer abuse.
  The bill bans grantees from using taxpayer-funded grant money, Mr. 
Speaker, to lobby the government. Because money is fungible, the bill 
also places strict limits on the amount of lobbying that grantees can 
do with their nongrant funds.
  To ensure the law is followed, Mr. Speaker, grantees must open their 
books to audits and submit annual reports to GAO and agencies that 
award the grants. Most importantly, the bill gives taxpayers the 
information and the authority they need to root out abuses on their own 
so they can recover in an appropriate way these grant funds from the 
government.
  American need to have confidence that their hard-earned tax dollars 
are not being wasted. Under this program, their money is not going down 
a rat hole.
  If Americans knew this happened every day, Mr. Speaker, they would be 
rightly outraged.
  We have gathered many, many groups throughout the country who support 
this legislation, including the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, 
Citizens for a Sound Economy, the American Family Association, the 
National Restaurant Association, Americans for Tax Reform, the 
Competitive Enterprise Institute, the National Taxpayers Union, 
Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Federation of 
Independent Business, the National Association of Wholesaler 
Distributors, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Beer Wholesalers, 
Senior Coalition, and the list goes on and on, Mr. Speaker.
  There are a lot of people, there are a lot of groups in this country 
engaged with respect to this issue who understand how important the 
issue is and support our reform efforts.
  Just to conclude with a few remarks, Mr. Speaker, it has been popular 
to criticize this reform measure as ``defunding the left.'' The left, 
the right and the center have nothing to do with respect to this 
particular piece of legislation, whether groups on the right or groups 
on the center or groups on the left are violating the law, we need to 
know. I particularly do not care what particular ideological group they 
happen to fall into. It is unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, that everything is 
spun and subject to political spin in this town. This is not about 
ideology, other than, Mr. Speaker, cleaning up this House and the way 
we conduct business in Washington, DC.
  One last point, Mr. Speaker. We seem to have lost the distinction in 
this country when it comes to nonprofit lobbying efforts between an 
advocate and the mission of the nonprofit. The purpose, the bottom line 
with respect to this bill, Mr. Speaker, is to return the primacy of 
special, of nonprofit groups to their targeted areas, to their 
missions, to their goals and away, Mr. Speaker, from going to the 
public, coming to this town, coming to this floor and asking 
forevermore additional moneys to fund their advocacy programs.
  There is a clear distinction between the two concepts, Mr. Speaker. 
The purpose of this bill, the bill put forward by Represenatives 
McIntosh, Istook, and Ehrlich is to reestablish that dichotomy, that 
very important distinction between nonprofits who view their essential 
mission in life to accomplish their goals, to fulfill their missions 
and other nonprofits who simply seek to expand their ability to gain 
public dollars.
  That should not be their primary mission; being a lobbyist should not 
be what they are about. That is the bottom line to their reform 
measure. I have been very pleased to receive the sort of response from 
our district and from around the country, from the groups I mentioned 
earlier and from just individual citizens who are very happy to see 
true nonideological reform efforts take place in this House.


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