Jack Kingston: “What the Istook amendment is, there are 40,000 different organizations that receive taxpayer funding in the form of…”

“What the Istook amendment is, there are 40,000 different organizations that receive taxpayer funding in the form of grants or direct loans or straight funding. Many of these organizations, and by the way this is to the tune of $39 billion, many of these organizations, most of them, are not even open to public disclosure of their records, saying where the money is going, who is spending it, what kind of salaries the directors are making, and so forth. What the Istook-McIntosh amendment says is that if you receive Federal money, what you have to have is that kind of disclosure. Also, you cannot use the money for political lobbying. There was one example of an outfit that got 97 percent of its money from the Federal Government, and spent $405,000 in PAC contributions to congressional candidates; absolutely nothing but funding politics with taxpayer moneys. It is totally wrong. Mr. Speaker, I believe it is one of the things we are doing that will help move us toward a balanced budget and put some common sense in this crazy government system.”