Tom Harkin: “I thank the Chair. Mr. President, after listening to the previous three speakers, it is hard to know where to begin to…”

“I thank the Chair. Mr. President, after listening to the previous three speakers, it is hard to know where to begin to correct the record with all the misstatements. Maybe I will kind of work backward. My good friend, the Senator from Wyoming, gave a whole list of different things about where this money was spent. He mentioned something about California and fast food construction. I did not get it all. But I am informed there was absolutely no money from the Prevention and Public Health Fund that went for that program. If the Senator from Wyoming has any evidence to the contrary, I would be more than delighted to look at it. Then there was the one about the dogs and cats in Nashville, TN. I thought the newspaper article that was in the Hill newspaper put that one to rest, but I guess it did not. It just goes on and on. That money actually was funded by private grant money. I guess PetSmart, from what I am told, put that money in for pet spaying and neutering in Nashville, TN. Again, that money did not come from the Prevention and Public Health Fund. If the Senator from Wyoming has evidence to the contrary, I would like to look into that. Then the Senator from Wyoming mentioned the New York Department of Health using $3 million to lobby in New York for a soda tax initiative. First of all, I will tell my good friend, the Senator from Wyoming, there is an absolute prohibition on Federal moneys being used for lobbying.…”