[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10470-H10471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              POLITICAL APPOINTEES ABUSING THEIR POSITIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Jones] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, there is much talk throughout our Nation 
about reforming the way Washington, DC operates. The people are upset 
about the way politicians have been conducting business. One reason 
that people are upset is because they see political appointees abusing 
their position using tax dollars to work on reelection campaigns 
instead of doing the jobs they are paid to do.
  Mr. Speaker, last week the people of eastern North Carolina got a 
firsthand example of that abuse. A Clinton political appointee in the 
Department of Agriculture was assigned to contact one of the newspapers 
in my district. He not only called to use the agricultural 
appropriations bill to campaign against Republicans, he also called to 
campaign against Medicare, student loans, and other issues.
  What in the world is an Under Secretary of Agriculture doing 
campaigning about programs that have absolutely nothing to do with his 
job on taxpayers time?
  The answer, Mr. Speaker, is that the Clinton administration talks 
about the need for reform but at the same time they are using 
taxpayers' dollars to campaign for reelection.
  He called to talk about how much the Clinton administration cares 
about rural North Carolina, but at the same time the Clinton 
administration is recommending policies that would destroy the economy 
of rural eastern North Carolina.
  As Gene Price, the editor of the Goldsboro News-Argus stated in an 
editorial, and I quote:

       Bill Clinton is the biggest enemy of the tobacco farmer 
     ever to sit in the White House.
       Tobacco farmers aren't stupid. The man who has been going 
     for their jugular ever since he has been in Washington now 
     has the gall to send his emissary on a scare-the-hell-out-of-
     'em mission telling North Carolina farmers the Republicans 
     are threatening their tobacco program.

  I further quote Mr. Price:

       Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress should 
     not be fooled. Certainly the Third District's Walter Jones, 
     Jr. sees the President's campaign for what it is.

  Mr. Speaker, the Goldsboro News-Argus is right. The President's 
campaign is exactly that, a political campaign paid for with your tax 
dollar. Every single Member of Congress from North Carolina, Republican 
and Democrat alike, voted for the agriculture appropriations bill. It 
is the Clinton administration, not Congress, that is trying to destroy 
the tobacco farmers.
  Mr. Speaker, it is the Clinton administration that is now trying to 
classify nicotine as a drug. It is the Clinton administration that is 
trying to put families that have grown tobacco for generations into the 
same category as Asian poppy growers.
  Now this same Clinton administration has the gall to have its 
political appointees call my district to say that he, Bill Clinton, is 
worried about what the Republicans might do to tobacco. The bad news, 
Mr. Speaker, is that this kind of hypocrisy only adds to the cynicism 
about all people in public life. The good news is that the people of 
eastern North Carolina have long ago figured out the Clinton crowd. The 
working people of eastern North Carolina who pay their taxes, go to 
church and play by the rules know that there is very little 
relationship between what this administration does and says and really 
what it does and says in reality.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter how many Clinton political appointees call my 
district to say otherwise, the people of eastern North Carolina know 
that an administration that is trying to destroy the tobacco farmer 
does not care about rural North Carolina.
  In the future, Mr. Speaker, I would advise the President to have his 
political appointees confine their campaigning to Hollywood or to San 
Francisco 

[[Page H 10471]]

or to some other place where the people have not yet figured out that 
this administration's word means very little.
  But he is going to have his government employees do his campaigning 
for him. At least have them do it on their own time. That would be the 
beginning of real reform.

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