Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, last year, Jan Scruggs, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, came to my office and told me about an absurd fund-raising problem he had. He told me that in order to build a much- needed education center at the Vietnam Wall, he had to raise nearly $100 million of private money. Normally, this would not be a big problem; however, in this case, VVMF had to raise all of this $100 million without the ability to recognize their donors because current law did not allow donor recognition. Mr. Speaker, I think we can agree that it is ridiculous to force any organization to fund-raise without the ability to recognize donors. How are we supposed to raise any money? Even the National Park Service understands the importance of donor recognition. I personally have seen hundreds of benches in national parks all across this country that have little metal plaques on them thanking people for their generous donations. In spite of current law and this donor recognition handicap, VVMF has raised over 25 percent of the nearly $100 million needed to build this education center. My bill, H.R. 588, will give them the extra pulling power they need to quickly complete their fund-raising and finally cross the $100 million finish line. Overall, my bill is very straightforward. It merely provides VVMF the ability to recognize their donors.…”