[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          SEVENTH ANNUAL HOOPS FOR HOPE BASKETBALL GAME RESULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Hulshof) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HULSHOF. Mr. Speaker, I rise and have the privilege perhaps on a 
lighter note to report the outcome of the seventh annual Hoops For Hope 
basketball game between Washington, D.C.'s elite lobbyists and Members 
of Congress. Perhaps the broad smile on my face or the gleaming 
hardware to my left might provide some clues as to the outcome of last 
night's contest.
  Seven years ago, Paul Miller of the American League of Lobbyists hit 
upon the idea that perhaps lobbyists and Members of Congress could move 
away from the political arena and actually have a contest on the court. 
While I will report to my colleagues the games have been intensely 
competitive, the game has had a more noble purpose, and that is to 
raise money for kids in the inner city of Washington, D.C.
  Last night, through the generosity of a lot of people, we raised 
$50,000 from just last night's event, bringing the running total of 
these several contests to over $200,000. Again, there were a lot of 
people that deserve a lot of credit for helping make that event a 
success.
  Certainly our former colleague, Jack Quinn of New York, who, of 
course, now has gone over to the lobbyists side. When Jack Quinn was a 
colleague here and was our coach, he had an undefeated record. 
Unfortunately, his former colleagues last night marred that record and 
gave him a defeat; but, again, I appreciate all the work that Jack did, 
that Paul Miller did.
  George Washington University was very gracious in hosting the event 
yet again.
  I would also like to talk about someone who donated his time, that 
is, Missouri men's basketball coach Quin Snyder, who is a personal 
friend who accepted my invitation to come, who came at his own expense, 
at his own effort, to prowl the sidelines to give some guidance for us. 
The game got a little close in the waning moments, and it was his 
presence on the sidelines, maybe working the officials just a little 
bit, but I really appreciate my friend Quin coming here to Washington, 
D.C. again for this purpose, his executive assistant Donna, as well as 
my own executive assistant Eileen, who helped work on the logistics.
  Finally, this was a bipartisan, bicameral team. When you think that, 
on paper at least, the universe of lobbyists is about 10,000, and of 
course, House Members and Senators, there are only 535 of us from which 
to draw this team, we really on paper should not even be on the same 
court with these lobbyists; and, nonetheless, thanks to Senators Ensign 
and Thune, thanks to my colleagues here in the House, the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus), the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt), 
the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Oxley), the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen), the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Inslee), and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), 
we happened to have a winning margin in the double digits. The final 
score was 44 to 33; and yet the real winners are the kids from the 
inner city D.C. area who are the beneficiaries of the proceeds that we 
raised.
  We had a chance at half-time to personally interact with dozens of 
these kids. Again, this is a community effort to provide a solution for 
some kids growing up in some really tough circumstances. So they are 
the real winners of last night's contest; but even as they are the 
beneficiaries of those proceeds, we will proudly hang on to this 
gleaming hardware for yet another year.
  I thank the Chair for allowing me this time.

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