David Skaggs: “Mr. Chairman, I will stipulate at the outset this particular rendition of this redtape-filled, burdensome, bureaucratic…”

“Mr. Chairman, I will stipulate at the outset this particular rendition of this redtape-filled, burdensome, bureaucratic reporting requirement on America's charities is less bad than the last time we had this debate, but it does not make it good. To the contrary, this will impose a scheme that will force charities and nonprofit and many businesses, small businesses included, to keep a whole new set of records about the activities of their employees and volunteers and their expenditures in order to file a whole new set of annual reports to the Federal Government, to Washington, letting us know what they may be doing to try to influence legislation by their city councils, by their county commissions, by their State legislatures, if they happen to get some Federal money by way of a grant. What in the world are we doing, Mr. Chairman? What is the evil here? Who are the bad guys? What is the problem? It is already illegal to use Federal grant moneys to lobby. That law works very well. There have been no demonstrated problems. What is this amendment about? What will the impacts be? Let me just give a couple of examples. The Red Cross of America, trying to get the county that it may be operating in to develop an emergency preparedness plan, will have to keep track of the activities involved with that, so it can be part of this report.”