Political Quotes

“earlier this year the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, undertook an extensive investigation of the practices of sweepstakes companies. We held hearings in March and later in the year to examine the increasingly deceptive and aggressive marketing techniques used by many of the sweepstakes companies in this country. At these hearings, I was told repeatedly by these companies that they did not target the elderly, they did not use deceptive techniques to try to induce people to buy products they didn't really need or want, and that they were constantly reviewing their promotional language to make sure it was fair. They pledged to further improve their efforts to make sure their mailings were not deceptive. Recently, my constituents have sent me a number of examples of deceptive sweepstakes mailings. I tell my colleagues, they are just as deceptive as ever. I have seen absolutely no voluntary improvement by the sweepstakes industry, despite the extensive attention given to their deceptive practices.”