[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 143 (Monday, October 21, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1935-E1936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        SIERRA CLUB'S ANTI-GOP EFFORTS ASSISTED BY REP. BOEHLERT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. WES COOLEY

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 21, 1996

  Mr. COOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, during my tenure in Congress, I 
have been astounded by the intensity of partisan political activities 
by national environmental groups. The Sierra Club has clearly been 
among the most partisan and politically active of all these groups.
  According to the Federal Election Commission's records from July 
1995, the Sierra Club has contributed a total of $8,500 to four 
Republican candidates for Congress and $85,162 to 47 Democratic 
candidates during the current election cycle. The September/October 
1996 issue of Sierra magazine reported the group had endorsed 131 
candidates for House and Senate. Not surprisingly, only 7 of these were 
Republicans.
  Moreover, during last winter's special U.S. Senate race in my State, 
the Sierra Club reported spending $168,454 in independent expenditures 
on behalf of Democratic nominee Ron Wyden. Many similar independent 
expenditures are currently underway throughout the Nation.
  I was dismayed, but not surprised, to learn that Representative 
Sherry Boehlert, cochairman of the Speaker's Task Force on the 
Environment, has aided and abetted the Sierra Club in its efforts to 
defeat Republicans this November. Consequently, I signed the following 
letter along with many other free market and conservative groups asking 
the Speaker to discipline Representative Boehlert for his unforgivable 
actions. I urge my colleagues to read this letter and learn more about 
Representative Boehlert's efforts to help the Sierra Club elect a 
Democrat majority in Congress.

                                               September 16, 1996.
     Hon. Newt Gingrich,
     Speaker of the House, House of Representatives, Washington, 
         DC.
       Dear Mr. Speaker: We are writing to express our concerns 
     about recent activities of Representative Sherwood Boehlert, 
     which we believe undermine the mission and credibility of 
     your Speaker's Task Force on the Environment. You have stated 
     that the value of your Task Force is that it offers a forum 
     in which members with widely varying views on environmental 
     and regulatory issues can learn from each other in an 
     atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. Rep. Boehlert has 
     poisoned that atmosphere.
       On August 13 during the Republican National Convention, 
     Rep. Boehlert was the featured guest at a Sierra Club 
     fundraising reception at the Harbor Island West Hotel in San 
     Diego. The Sierra Club presented him with their ``highest 
     award for elected officials.'' In his remarks, Rep. Boehlert 
     concluded by telling the audience that a ``cleaner, 
     healthier, safer environment is what I am working for. That 
     is what you are working for, and we are partners.''
       Rep. Boehlert's partners at the Sierra Club are doing 
     something else besides working for a cleaner, healthier, 
     safer environment. They are also engaged in a massive effort 
     to ``take back the Congress,'' which their president, Adam 
     Werbach, recently described as ``the worst Congress ever, 
     period.'' The political director of the Sierra Club, Daniel 
     J. Weiss, has described their election strategy as a ``multi-
     million dollar educational campaign.'' Of 131 House and 
     Senate candidates officially endorsed by the Sierra Club in 
     the current issue of Sierra magazine, seven are Republicans. 
     The challenger is endorsed in Georgia's sixth Congressional 
     district. FEC reports in July show that in the current 
     election cycle the Sierra Club had contributed a total of 
     $8,500 to four Republican candidates and $85,162 to 47 
     Democratic candidates. In addition, the Sierra Club reported 
     spending $168,454 in independent expenditures during last 
     winter's special Senate election in Oregon on behalf of Ron 
     Wyden. Similar independent expenditures are planned for the 
     fall campaign in many races.
       Media packets distributed by the Sierra Club at their San 
     Diego fund-raiser viciously and unfairly lambasted 
     Congressional attempts to reform and improve federal 
     environmental laws and attack you personally in the most 
     outrageous terms (as do Sierra Club fundraising letters). 
     Immediately before their fund-raiser, Rep. Boehlert's 
     partners at the Sierra Club sponsored a protest rally and 
     walk along the harbor in San Diego to ``take back the 
     Congress.'' One protester carried a homemade banner that 
     depicted a bulldozer driven by you with the words ``Private 
     Property Rights'' emblazoned on the blade. Underneath were 
     the words ``Stop GOP Terrorism'' with a swastika drawn 
     inside the O in GOP.
       It should also be mentioned that Sierra magazine featured 
     Representative Richard Pombo, the other co-chairman of your 
     Task Force on the Environment, as its first ``Eco-Thug of the 
     Month.'' It has also featured at least five other members of 
     your Task Force as Eco-Thugs of the Month: Representatives 
     Billy Tauzin, Andrea Seastrand, Nathan Deal, Helen Chenoweth, 
     and Jimmy Hayes. In addition, the Sierra Club has officially 
     endorsed the opponents of two other members of the Task 
     Force's Steering Committee, Representatives James Longley and 
     Brian Bilbray.
       The Sierra Club is not the only radical organization Rep. 
     Boehlert has been working with to thwart Congress's 
     environmental reform efforts. In a January 30 letter to the 
     legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council 
     thanking NRDC's staff for their help, he wrote, ``At this 
     time in 1995, the prospects for environmental protection 
     looked bleak.'' On July 23, the news service Greenwire 
     reported that, ``Starting this week, the Natural Resources 
     Defense Council will air 60-second radio ads against 16 House 
     members with `anti-environmental voting patterns.' '' An 
     Associated Press story published in the November 2, 1995 
     Atlanta Constitution reports that Rep. Boehlert attended an 
     environmental protest rally on the Capitol steps and ``joined 
     in the chant `Stop the rollback. Free the planet.' ''
       We enthusiastically applaud the efforts made by the 104th 
     Congress to reform our nation's disastrous command-and-
     control environmental policies. Given Rep. Boehlert's actions 
     outlined above to stymie those efforts and to defeat those 
     who support them, we respectfully suggest that it is 
     inappropriate for him to serve as co-chairman of your Task 
     Force on the Environment, a position of great responsibility 
     that gives him power to control what environmental 
     legislation can come to the floor.
       We are enclosing relevant supporting materials. We look 
     forward to working with you to address these concerns.
           Sincerely yours,
       Malcolm Wallop, Chairman, Frontiers of Freedom; Paul M. 
     Weyrich, President, Free Congress Foundation.
       Joseph M. Phillips, Director, Federal Affairs, National 
     Rifle Association I.L.A.; Dennis Hollingsworth, Director of 
     Natural Resources, Riverside County Farm Bureau; Peter T. 
     Flaherty, Chairman, Conservative Campaign Fund; Amy Moritz, 
     President, National Center for Public Policy Research; Carol 
     W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of 
     America, Inc.; Nancie G. Marzulla, President and Chief Legal 
     Counsel Defenders of Property Rights.
       Morton C. Blackwell, Republican National Committeeman for 
     Virginia; David Ridenour, Director, Environmental Policy Task 
     Force; Chuck Cushman, Executive Director, American Land 
     Rights Association; Fred L. Smith, President, Competitive 
     Enterprise Institute; Margaret Ann Riegle, Chairman, The 
     Fairness to Landowners Committee; Jeffrey P. Harris, Exec. 
     Director, National Coalition for Public Lands and Natural 
     Resources.
       Met Johnson, Executive Director, Western States Coalition; 
     G. Ray Arnett, President, Arnett & Associates; David B. 
     Howard, President, Land Rights Foundation; The Honorable 
     Donald Amador, Commissioner, OHMVR Div., Calif. Department of 
     Parks and Recreation; Douglas Domenech, Executive Director, 
     Madison Project; Kathleen Marquardt, Chairman, Putting People 
     First.
       Dr. S. Fred Singer, President, Science and Environmental 
     Policy Project; The Honorable Wes Cooley, Member of Congress, 
     Oregon, Second District; Karen Kerrigan, President, Small 
     Business Survival Committee; Clark L. Collins, Executive 
     Director, Blue Ribbon Coalition; Henry Lamb, Exec. Vice 
     President, Environmental Conservation Organization; Thomas A. 
     DeWeese, President, American Policy Center.
       David M. Rothbard, President, Comm. for a Constructive 
     Tomorrow; Bruce C. Grefrath, Washington Representative, 
     National Inholders Association; Y. Leon Favreau, President, 
     Multiple Use Association; Caren Cowan, Executive Director, 
     New Mexico Wool Growers Inc.; William T. Riley, Northwest 
     Council of Governments; Robert L. Gardner, President, Curry 
     County Oregon Project.
       Edmund Peterson, Chairman, Project 21; William E. Theis, 
     Steering Committee, Stop Taking Our Property; Jack E. Phelps, 
     Executive Director, Alaska Forest Association; Helen A. 
     Baker, Director, Women For California; William Pickell, 
     General Manager, Washington Contract Loggers Assn.; Randal L. 
     Pelton, Chairman, Chelan County Citizens Coalition.
       Edward H. Waldheim, President, California Off-Road Vehicle 
     Association; Peggy A. Wagner, Director, Montanans for 
     Multiple Use; Dr. Bonner R. Cohen, Editor, EPA Watch; R.O. 
     Voight, President, Maine Conservation

[[Page E1936]]

     Rights Institute; Adam Dubitsky, President, ABD 
     Communications; Robert MacMullin, President, MacMullin 
     Forestry & Logging.
       William J. Murray, Chairman, Government Is Not God PAC; 
     Barbara Mossman, Spokesman, American Loggers Solidarity; 
     Chuck Chase, Director, Eastern Oregon Mining Association; 
     Patricia A. Bradburn, President, Virginians for Property 
     Rights; Darlene Slusher, President, Accord Chapter, People 
     for the West!; Karl W. Mote, Retired, Mining Industry; Harry 
     A. Baker, Jr., Chief Instructor, California 44 Education & 
     Training; Robert J. Smith, Senior Environmental Scholar, 
     Competitive Enterprise Institute; Mike Dail, President, 
     Federal Land Bank Association of Mason.

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