[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 194 (Thursday, December 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   BLATANT POLITICAL DOCUMENTS SENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO FEDERAL 
                               EMPLOYEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue 
regarding a letter that President Clinton and Vice President Gore sent 
to a number of Federal employees. I was at a hearing last week on the 
space program and we were receiving testimony from the administrator, 
Mr. Dan Golden, and one of the members at that hearing brought up the 
subject of a letter that had been sent to NASA employees in his 
district that he found particularly offensive. I was very concerned 
about this particular issue, so I asked for a copy of this letter.
  Honestly, Mr. Speaker, when I saw this letter, I thought it was a 
hoax. I thought the President and the Vice President of the United 
States of America could never be so foolish as to send out to Federal 
civil service employees an openly and blatantly political document such 
as this, which is obviously in violation of statute. I had one of my 
staff call over to the White house to find out for sure, because I 
thought it was obviously a hoax, as to whether or not the White House 
had authorized this letter. I was very, very shocked to find out that 
this, indeed, did come out of the office of the President and was 
authorized by the Vice President's office.
  The letter is entitled ``An open letter to Federal employees, from 
President Clinton and Vice President Gore.'' It begins with a comment 
about how proud they are of the work force, and then it goes on to say 
some nice things about the very good work that our Federal employees 
do, but then it goes on to talk about the possibility of another 
Federal shutdown.
  It says in the fourth paragraph: ``You all know that the law under 
which most of the government is operating expires on December 15, and 
the debate that led to the November shutdown is not over,'' a very true 
and accurate statement. I agree with it.
  Then it goes on to say: ``We can't promise you that your jobs and 
your lives won't be interrupted again. Too much is at stake for 
America. If you are held hostage again, we know you would not want us 
to forfeit the Nation's future as ransom.''
  Mr. Speaker, I think this is an outrage that the President and the 
Vice President of the United States would send out such a blatantly 
political document to Federal employees. The Congress of the United 
States sent to the President of the United States a continuing 
resolution to keep the Government open, and the President of the United 
States decided to veto that continuing resolution, and in him doing so, 
vetoing that legislation, he shut the Government down. It was quite 
apparent to me when I heard that he did not talk to the Speaker or the 
majority leader of the other body on their trip to Israel at all that 
he was very intent on not negotiating with our side and letting the 
government shut down.
  Indeed, that was the real story behind that lack of dialogue on that 
trip to Israel, the fact that the President of the United States wanted 
to go ahead and shut the Government down, and then these two gentlemen 
have the nerve to turn around and send out such a politically blatant 
document to Federal employees. I am calling on the chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Civil Service, the honorable and distinguished 
gentleman from Florida, [Mr. John Mica] to hold hearings on this 
subject, because I have since discovered this is not the first time 
that this has happened. No other President in United States history has 
ever exploited the Federal work force for political advantage like this 
President has.
  I have in my hands a document that came out of the White House, 
encouraging all Cabinet Members to solicit political donations from 
Federal employees, so this President has done it before. He has used 
his political office of the Presidency of the United States for his 
political gain. He is doing that again in this letter. I think it is 
wrong. No Republican President could ever get away with doing anything 
like this. If a Republican tried something like this, the Washington 
press corps would be up in arms, there would be calls for 
investigations, there would be hearings being held.
  I am rising today in this House to call upon the Subcommittee on 
Civil Service to hold hearings on what this President and the Vice 
President of the United States are doing, politicizing our civil 
service work force. I could tell you that I have civil service 
employees in my district who got this letter and they were outraged.

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