[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 7, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H7880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CHARITABLE DONATIONS FOR SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACK VICTIMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, today the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade 
and Consumer Protection had a hearing where we listened to the new 
chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Tim Muris, and we talked 
about a lot of issues that are under his control. On the previous day, 
we had a hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in 
which the chairman did an excellent job dealing with questions of the 
charities that have been created as a result of the September 11 
catastrophe.
  The outpouring of support from Americans is truly magnanimous since 
this tragedy. But we have to be sure that the contributions that are 
made expressly for the purpose of aiding fellow Americans in the wake 
of these attacks are used for the right purpose. In my home State we 
had Hurricane Andrew, which was a major catastrophe, a calamity; and we 
had the same type of outpouring of contributions that were given to 
help the victims of that hurricane, and, likewise, since September 11 
we have had the same thing occur here in this country.
  Americans regularly give to charities. A recent study in the 
Washington Times indicates that the average household gives about 
$1,600 or 3.2 percent of their income to charities. In addition, about 
$1 billion has been donated for relief efforts. The outpouring of 
donations since the attack provides further evidence of the desire and 
instinct of Americans to help their fellow man.

                              {time}  1345

  That is a given.
  But, Mr. Speaker, the problem is a lot of these charities are keeping 
these monies, they are not distributing it, and there are roughly 
50,000 people that are unemployed up in New York because of the 
September 11 calamity. And with the 5,000 people killed, there are 
roughly 7,000 children without parents. So we need these charities to 
step forward and to go ahead and distribute this money as quickly as 
possible.
  Earlier this year, and recognizing the vital roles of charity, 
especially charitable foundations, I introduced legislation to abolish 
an antiquated excise tax that not-for-profit foundations pay on their 
net investment income. I am hopeful my colleagues will support this and 
it will be part of the stimulus package, because if we do not have this 
antiquated excise tax on the not-for-profit foundations, they will have 
more money to distribute.
  As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Speaker, Americans are very generous in 
their donations, and yet we hear stories of people saying they went to 
ground zero and went to the various charitable organizations and lo and 
behold they could not get money. A few did, but for the most part they 
got very little money. So I am here this afternoon to encourage the 
charities to distribute the money and realize that in the end the money 
that they collected is for those 50,000 people unemployed who cannot 
make mortgages and those roughly 7,000 children that are without 
fathers and mothers.
  Let me conclude by saying that the FTC, in the hearing we had today, 
indicated in testimony that their findings are that fraud cases are few 
and far between. So while there has been some talk about these 
charitable organizations as scam activities, from what the FTC chairman 
has seen, these frauds are few and far between. And I am heartened and 
pleased to hear the agency is aggressively monitoring and investigating 
any attempts of fraud within charities to take advantage of the 
September 11 occurrence.
  We need to highlight here in the House and the Senate how important 
it is that we show confidence in these charities, but at the same time 
the charities need to show and demonstrate that they are helping by 
distributing the money.

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