[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 38 (Wednesday, April 10, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TAXPAYER PROTECTION AND IRS ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2002

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                               speech of

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2002

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3991, the 
Taxpayer Protection and IRS Accountability Act. In an otherwise 
noncontroversial bill, Republicans have, once again, displayed their 
true agenda by inserting a provision to circumvent the campaign finance 
reform bill that was just signed into law. It is the height of 
hypocrisy for the House Republicans to pass broad campaign finance 
reform in March and then create loopholes to the law in April.
  In 2000, Congress passed a law that requires campaign finance 
reporting disclosure of section 527, non-profit political 
organizations. While most 527 organizations report their activities to 
the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and their income tax to the IRS, 
there was a subset of 527 organizations, both conservative and liberal, 
are active in political advertising and direct mail. Prior to enactment 
of the 2000 law, however, these organizations were not required to 
disclose who they received contributions from or how much. Congress 
corrected this specific campaign finance problem by requiring 
disclosure of those making large contributions to these types of 527 
organizations. And just last month, Congress passed and the President 
signed broader campaign finance reform legislation. The bill before us 
today guts the success of these two campaign finance bills by creating 
a new loophole for section 527 organizations to raise and spend soft 
money contributions without having to disclose the activity to anyone.
  To protect the integrity of campaign finance reform, Congressman 
Doggett offered an amendment in the Ways & Means Committee to ensure 
that section 527 political organizations could not circumvent our new 
campaign finance laws. Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues have 
already made big plans to use these loopholes for raising money, so the 
amendment failed along party lines. A recent report by Public Citizen 
shows that the existing section 527 IRS disclosure system suffers from 
serious flaws and allows many of these groups to skirt the law. We 
should be correcting the shortcomings of the 2000 law and strengthening 
the disclosure system--not weakening it. Our Republican friends, 
however, want more loopholes so they can keep stuffing their pockets 
with soft money cash.
  It is time for this Congress to put an end to campaign finance reform 
hypocrisy. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 3991.

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