David Skaggs: “as I mentioned first thing this morning, there was a very interesting hearing yesterday before the Committee on…”

“as I mentioned first thing this morning, there was a very interesting hearing yesterday before the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight on investigations having to do with the so-called Istook-McIntosh-Ehrlich proposal that masquerades as if it were doing some kind of completely unobjectionable thing, namely making sure that Federal moneys that go to organizations that receive Federal moneys that go to organizations that receive Federal grants cannot use those funds for lobbying. That is already against the law; make no bones about that. But this hearing showed, I think, one of the many, many reasons why in fact this is a proposal that would grossly interfere with the free exercise of political expression, and free speech, and freedom of association, all profoundly important rights under the Constitution of the United States as protected in the first amendment. Mr. Speaker, one of the more instructive witnesses yesterday was the director of political affairs for the YMCA of America, a lady named C.J. Van Pelt, and she gave a very, very interesting presentation about exactly how burdensome, intrusive, and chilling for the involvement of the YMCA, hardly a radical organization, in the political life of this country, and we should understand that we are not talking about lobbying Congress.…”