[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H2111-H2112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REGULATION NEEDED FOR 527 ORGANIZATIONS

  (Mrs. MILLER of Michigan asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Committee on House 
Administration will be holding a hearing on regulation of the so-called 
527 political organizations.

[[Page H2112]]

  We all remember the promises that campaign finance reform was 
supposed to remove unregulated money from the political process. Well, 
not only did it fail to deliver on its promise, an argument can be made 
that it actually is worse.
  527 groups have grown in importance and influence with little or no 
disclosure of who funds them. According to published reports, staffers 
of the distinguished House minority leader acknowledge they hold weekly 
meetings with the leaders of MoveOn.org.
  A recent fundraising e-mail sent on by MoveOn.org stated, ``Now it's 
our party. We bought it. We own it, and we're taking it back.''
  Strange that a group that claims to be nonpartisan for tax purposes 
claims to have bought a political party. The limited disclosure 
required by these groups makes it nearly impossible to determine who is 
claiming to have bought the Democratic Party. 527 groups spent over 
half a billion dollars in 2004 with no regulation from the FEC.
  If we truly want to enhance disclosure and remove unregulated money 
from the political process, we must do something about 527s.

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