[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   DARK MONEY DONORS, SHOW YOURSELVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Grijalva) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, money has taken over our political 
process. Big corporations and high-rolling political schemers tell us 
everything is still mom and apple pie, and there's nothing to worry 
about.
  But some of us have seen the effects of these hidden million-dollar 
dark money donations. We've seen the ads that tell you what to think 
and who to vote for, without telling you who's talking. We've seen the 
multimillion-dollar lawsuits that help elite corporate interests, 
without explaining who's paying the bill. We've seen more and more 
elections bought and paid for by the only people who can afford it. And 
those people are not us.
  It's time to start naming names and asking why these people won't 
tell us who they are. We must start to fight back and ask them what 
they have to hide.
  A front group called the National Federation of Independent Business 
is suing to block the Affordable Care Act. The president of the group 
says he's doing this to help small businesses. When I and my colleague 
Representative Keith Ellison wrote him a letter, asking him who his 
members are, he refused to answer. We asked him who gave him several 
recent million-dollar-plus donations that have helped fund the lawsuit; 
he refused to answer. We asked him why Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS 
political group gave him $3.7 million just when he initiated the 
lawsuit; he refused to answer. And he thinks that's good enough. Well, 
it's not.
  NFIB has never liked answering questions. In 2006, according to an 
article in the Nashville Scene, the organization claimed 600,000 member 
businesses nationwide. Today on its Web site, it claims about 300,000. 
But when we asked NFIB to disclose where its money comes from, instead 
of providing us the courtesy of a written response, the group told the 
press that its membership has been growing by leaps and bounds since 
the lawsuit began. It described shrinking by 50 percent as big, new 
expansion, and it said new members had made small donations that 
covered the cost of this complex lawsuit before the Supreme Court.
  In other words, NFIB won't tell us the truth about who it represents 
or how big it is. What does it have to hide?
  Our democracy has always been about people. It's been about 
individuals and families making choices about who represents their 
interests. It's about what kind of country we want to live in, not 
about what kind of country the very wealthy want to choose for us.
  Today, as we prepare for the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable 
Care Act, millions of Americans with preexisting health conditions, 
with sick children, with long-term medical needs, and with no insurance 
stand together on one side. A front group with bottomless pockets that 
won't explain its motives sits on the other.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not what our democracy is supposed to be about. 
Our Founding Fathers did not believe wealth makes a man more important 
than his neighbor. They didn't believe money is more important than the 
dignity of the individual. They didn't believe that any company or any 
organization is entitled to a special set of rules. And they certainly 
didn't believe that an incorporated business entity is the same thing 
as a human being.
  There is no reason we have to accept the choices that the very, very 
wealthy few in this country are making for the rest us. Today we stand 
up to be counted, and we demand that dark money donations come to 
light; that anyone who wants to influence our democracy step forward 
and state his name for the record and be honest and transparent with 
the American people.

                              {time}  1110

  Democracy is not for sale, and an election should not be an auction. 
I'm proud to be on the floor today and say that I am on the side of 
people that want disclosure, want fair elections, and are tired of the 
influence of dark money in our collective democracy.
  I challenge those front groups to ``put up'' or ``shut up.'' Tell us 
who's funding you and what you really want. It's about 4 months and a 
little more time until America elects a new Congress and a President. 
Let the voters decide. They know where I stand. And we want these front 
groups to tell us where they stand, where they get their money, who 
they are, and who they represent.
  The American people in this great democracy of ours should make the 
choice whether we like it or not. The influence by a very few secretive 
groups that are fronting for others should not be the ones that decide 
who represents the American people, who will run this country, and who 
will set the priorities for this country.

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