Date: 2011-02-17
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Not at this moment. Ive got my 5 minutes and Im going to use them. but I thank you. What were saying in this bill is that if were really trying to save the taxpayers some money. which we should all be trying to do. we should try to curb the influence of the special interests who spend a lot of money hiring lobbyists to influence us and spend money in campaigns trying to influence the outcome of elections. Now just in the last couple of days. weve had a lot of votes on some issues that could affect Federal Government contractors in a very big way. Just yesterday. we had a vote on something dealing with a big military contract. So heres my question. That contractor. the contractor that got taxpayer money or the one that didnt. could say. Look. I want to reward the folks that supported me. Im going to run a bunch of TV ads in their campaign supporting them. say thank you. I want to get you reelected. Or they may say to the folks who voted against that Federal Government contract. hey. I want to make sure that person doesnt come back here because they may vote against my contract again. they may want to save the taxpayer some money. but were going to spend some of our moneya Federal contractor. contractor getting taxpayer dollarswere going to spend some of our money to try and unelect that person who voted against our contract. This amendment is really simple and it would have a direct impact on all the conversations were having. If youre a Federal Government contractor. if youre getting taxpayer money and you decide to run political advertisement in peoples campaign to try and reward those who supported you or punish those that didnt. you at least have to disclose that information to the voters. You at least have to say who you are and how much youre going to be spending. And it seems to me if were genuinely interested in saving taxpayers dollars. which we all should be. we should give the taxpayer. whose dollars are going to those contractors. the right to know whether those contiractors are turning around and spending money in these elections. So if were ever going to really work to try and curb those interests. those special interests that work so hard to try and get special benefits out of the Federal Government. we should at the very least say. "Come clean with the taxpayers." This is not an infringement in any way on free speech. They can still run an ad in anyones district and they can say whatever they want to the voters. no restrictions whatsoever. All were saying is when you do that. let the taxpayers know. After all. the taxpayers have helped provide the funds for your contract. At the very least. you should tell the taxpayer. the voter. who you are thats spending money to try and influence the outcome of an election. It seems to me that thats the very least we can do to try and provide more accountability and more transparency. We keep hearing from everybody. thats what we wantmore transparency. Okay. lets let the voters know. Why wouldnt you want to let the voters know? Mr. Chairman. let me just conclude by saying. this is a very simple amendment. If youre a Federal Government contractor. youre getting taxpayer dollars. you decide to get engaged in the political process as is your right. and after the Citizens United. you can get directly involved expending money in those campaigns. You can do that and say what you want. Just tell the taxpayer who you are and what youre spending to try and influence their vote. I hope that we will adopt this amendment. and I thank the gentlelady from California for offering it.