[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16549-16550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        SWAPPING OF DONOR LISTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Metcalf). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, last week a lot of us became aware of the 
fact that public television stations around the Nation were exchanging 
their donor lists with the Democrat National Committee. I would remind 
everyone, of course, that public television is supported by American 
taxpayers' dollars; that is, the tax dollars of Democrats, Republicans, 
Independents, even people who do not vote.
  And the public broadcasting service is a private, not-for-profit 
corporation. It is owned by 350 noncommercial TV stations. Its mission, 
Mr. Speaker, is to provide over-the-air broadcasting that serves the 
public interested. PBS is partially funded by the Federal Government 
through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the CPB.
  This year, in fact, we were considering providing CPB with as much as 
$475 million a year. In turn, CPB provides public broadcasting stations 
with 14 percent of its funding. In fact, last year that amounted to 
more than $37 million. In addition, PBS received $4 million more than 
other Federal agencies.
  Public TV stations are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group, and as such, they 
are tax exempt. Being tax exempt, they are prohibited from supporting 
any political party or engaging in any lobbying or other partisan 
activity.
  I serve on the Committee on Commerce's Subcommittee on 
Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection last week, during 
consideration of the reauthorization of the Corporation for Public 
Broadcasting, a story came to light about a Boston public TV station 
which had shared 32,000 names with the Democrat National Committee. It 
reported that Sam Black, a 4-year-old received a fund-raising letter 
from the DNC.

                              {time}  1245

  It appears that Sam's mother included his name with her own when she 
sent a donation to the Boston station WGBH. The first time this fund-
raising exchange was reported, the station originally maintained that 
it was an isolated incident, a mistake by an ill-informed employee. Of 
course, the facts, Mr. Speaker, showed differently.
  WGBH first approached the Democratic Party in 1993. In that first 
year, the station received 5,000 names of

[[Page 16550]]

Democratic campaign donors. The next year WGBH, in a sense, paid for 
new names by swapping the names of their contributors.
  The station also received a financial payment for providing 10,200 
names. My colleagues and I on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, 
Trade, and Consumer Protection wanted to know more; specifically, if 
this practice was widespread or if there was just one station involved. 
We found, of course, that their stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, 
New York, and even here in the Washington, D.C. area that had been 
cooperating with the DNC in fund-raising activities for as long as 20 
years.
  I am not concerned that the Republicans were excluded from this fund-
raising effort. I am concerned that tax-exempt organizations are 
engaging in partisan politics. Since the beginning, there has been a 
close relationship between the Public Broadcasting Service and what 
many of us perceive as the liberal agenda. In the mid-1990s, the Media 
Research Center studied 73 PBS programs for political bias. It found 
there was a liberal slant on these shows. Now, more recently, Mr. 
Speaker, PBS decided not to air the President's videotaped testimony 
before the grand jury or to offer live coverage of the impeachment 
debate in the House Judiciary. Instead, Mr. Speaker, it ran Barney and 
the Teletubbies. However, it did find it appropriate and in the public 
interest to provide full coverage for the Watergate and Iran-Contra 
hearings.
  Now we have discovered that there is more than just an ideological 
connection between PBS and the Democratic Party. This financial 
cooperation is clearly in violation of our tax laws and could be of 
interest to the FEC and to the IRS.
  During consideration of the reauthorization for CPB, I prepared an 
amendment calling on the comptroller of the United States to conduct a 
study, a simple study, on this swapping of donor lists and to report 
what stations, which political parties, and the circumstances of this 
cooperation. However, the hearing on reauthorization has been 
postponed, but Congress needs to act now.
  The next step is for the GAO to launch an investigation into this 
matter. I also want to see the CPB take steps themselves to find out 
the extent of these joint fund-raising activities and to assure 
Congress and the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and 
Consumer Protection that this has ended and will not occur again.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, the American people now endure the 
highest level of taxation in this Nation's history. These hard-working 
people should not be sending their tax dollars to help support public 
TV stations which are working with the DNC to enrich their respective 
organizations. Public TV stations should be serving the public interest 
and, of course, not any partisan political interest.

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