[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 154 (Friday, September 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9721]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               LAWS GOVERNING NONPROFIT LOBBYING ADEQUATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Everett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from New York [Ms. Slaughter] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, persons who are watching this afternoon, 
I have to tell you, if you are really going to find out what happened 
at that subcommittee meeting yesterday, I am afraid we are going to 
have to send you copies of the committee transcript. Because, frankly, 
you would have to be like Alice in Wonderland, who can believe six 
impossible things before breakfast, if you believe what has been said 
here.
  It was made clear by the witnesses yesterday that the law that is 
already on the books that governs nonprofit agencies is more than 
adequate. If there is any problem anywhere, if there is some kind of 
enforcement problem, deal with it.
  The truth of the matter is, there has been no complaint to the IRS at 
any time that these laws have been on the books that any nonprofit 
agency in America broke that law. There is simply no indication of that 
at all.
  What we have here is a bill that is intended to punish people who do 
not agree with the other side. They have made it clear. They have 
beaten up on the National Council of Senior Citizens as though they 
were the scourge of the earth and were going to bring down the country. 
We yesterday went through listening to people who headed up agencies, 
and we have had letters from people like the Girl Scouts, Catholic 
Charities, the YMCA, that this bill implies they are an enormous threat 
to the United States because of the grants they get.
  Let me just tell you what it means to be a nonprofit agency and what 
you have to do under current law with Federal money. For example, you 
may not have any communication with the public and direct communication 
with legislators in an attempt to influence the introduction, 
enactment, modification or defeat of new or pending legislation in 
Congress or State legislatures. That does not apply to universities. We 
will get to them a little bit later.
  You are prohibited from legislative liaison activities, including 
attending the hearings, gathering information, analyzing effects of 
such activities that support lobbying or are in knowing preparation for 
it.
  You may not electioneer, directly or indirectly. This covers both 
attempting to (a) influence a Federal, State or local election, 
referendum, initiative, or similar procedure and, (b) to establish, 
support or administer a political campaign party, political action 
committee, or other organizations.
  It's another matter what they do with their own money. It is not the 
Federal money. They have done nothing wrong with their Federal money. 
There is no indication anywhere that they did anything wrong with the 
Federal money that they got.
  In addition, there is about a 5-page questionnaire which really 
smacks of McCarthyism frankly. I just learned today when a similar 
thing came up in the Justice Committee, that several Republicans took 
great umbrage at the questionnaire, things that had been asked of 
citizens of the United States.
  For example, this questionnaire wants to know of every nonprofit 
agency, who do you associate with? Is that any of their business, who 
you associate with? Second, they have to contact every vendor with 
which they do business and get from them a written statement on how 
much they in their private business spend for any lobbying activities.
  In the case of the YMCA, the director told us yesterday that she does 
business with 148,000 vendors, She said that the onerous restrictions 
in this bill would obviously meet the purpose, which is to not allow 
nonprofits like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and others who have 
always been perfect citizens, who are really always encouraging the 
community, to not let them have any say in this Federal Government--to 
give them an awful choice, to give up their citizenship or what little 
Federal money they get.
  Now, how much do they get in a grant? Well, the first thing we need 
to know is the State and local governments in the United States get 90 
percent of all the Federal grants. Do we ask them how they spend it? 
No. If they suddenly build something that does not go well, or a train 
that does not run, or a bridge that collapses, do we say how shameful 
this is to do this? No. We ask nothing in the world about them. The 
only restriction that we put on Federal grant money to a State and 
local government is to not let them charge their membership dues to an 
organization.
  Contrast that to what I just read for you about what a nonprofit 
organization in this country has to do. Now, if you are a university, 
you are not even prohibited from paying your membership. Indeed, you 
can do that.
  But when it comes to the misuse of Federal money that goes into the 
contracts, Mr. Speaker, since I have been in this House, and I am 
starting my ninth year, the misuse of Federal money that has been 
talked about most has come in two groups. First, the military 
contractors--which you all know the stories about the coffee pots, the 
toilet seats and the hammers; and universities who spent a lot of their 
research money or grant money for remodeling the university, for the 
President's salary, for putting dogs in kennels, or whatever other 
things they have done.

                              {time}  1630

  Did we call them before Congress and jump all over them and take the 
money away? No. We merely said we wished they would not do that.
  Mr. Speaker, we have reached a new low. I want to tell everyone what 
Washington's dirty little secret is.

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