[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 106 (Thursday, June 28, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1440-E1441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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                               speech of

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 27, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2829) making 
     appropriations for financial services and general government 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I oppose the amendment by the gentleman 
from Virginia.
  The Office of Special Counsel is a little-known agency with an 
important mission: it protects Federal whistleblowers from retaliation 
and enforces the Hatch Act, the law that prevents Federal officials 
from using Federal resources to engage in partisan politics.

[[Page E1441]]

  Last month, the Special Counsel issued a report highly critical of 
Lurita Doan, the GSA Administrator. The Special Counsel found that 
during a briefing for certain GSA employees by the White House Deputy 
Director of Political Affairs, the Administrator encouraged her 
subordinates to engage in partisan political activity.
  Here's what the Republican-appointed Special Counsel had to say about 
this incident: The GSA Administrator displayed no reservations in her 
willingness to commit GSA resources, including its human capital, to 
the Republican Party. Her actions, to be certain, constitute an obvious 
misuse of her official authority and were made for the purpose of 
affecting the result of an election. One can imagine no greater 
violation of the Hatch Act than to invoke the machinery of an agency, 
with all its contracts and buildings, in the service of a partisan 
campaign to retake Congress and the Governors' mansions.
  Currently, the Special Counsel is investigating whether Karl Rove and 
other White House officials violated the Hatch Act by holding numerous 
other political presentations at over 20 Federal agencies across 
government.
  Now, this amendment would take $1,000,000 from the Office of the 
Special Counsel. I have had serious disagreements with the Special 
Counsel in the past, but I have never proposed cutting the budget of 
this small agency. The Office only has a budget of about $16 million, 
so a cut of this magnitude could have a devastating effect.
  We need more enforcement of the Hatch Act and more protection of 
Federal whistleblowers--not less.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose the Davis amendment.

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