[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11467-H11468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TAXPAYER-FUNDED POLITICAL ADVOCACY

  (Mr. LARGENT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LARGENT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
support a much needed lobbying reform measure which would put an end to 
what has come to be known in Washington as Welfare for Lobbyists. I am 
quite certain that if taxpayers knew that their hard earned money is 
being spent to subsidize the political activity of certain Federal 
grant recipients, they would be as outraged as I am over this practice.
  As Members of Congress, we have been entrusted by the citizens of 
this country to oversee how Federal tax dollars are spent. If we 
continue to allow the incestuous practice of taxpayer-subsidized 
political activity, we will have betrayed this trust.
  We are in the middle of a budget battle. We are trying to reign in 
wasteful Government spending in the name of fiscal responsibility. How 
can we face our constituents and say that we have 

[[Page H11468]]

met that responsibility, if we continue to line the pockets of 
lobbyists with 39 billion dollars' worth of public money?
  These lobbyists are exploiting their status as nonprofit grant 
recipients. The time has come to say ``no more.'' Too many groups have 
spent too much money to promote the narrow self-interests of too few. 
Say ``no'' to this outrage by voting ``yes'' to the Istook-McIntosh-
Ehrlich amendment. Vote to end Welfare for Lobbyists.

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