Gilbert Gutknecht: “I do not remember the exact number, Chairman McIntosh, of hours of hearings we have had about this issue, but there are…”

“I do not remember the exact number, Chairman McIntosh, of hours of hearings we have had about this issue, but there are several things that surprise me, and frankly just shock me, in the testimony we have heard. First of all, there are, in fact, groups out there receiving over 96 percent of their entire budget in Federal grants and then turning around and engaging almost exclusively in what I would describe as political activity. That is shocking enough. But I will tell you what surprises me even more, and that is that some groups have come to Washington and have lobbied against this bill, and some good groups that do good things that we all know the names of, the YMCA, the Boy Scouts, that they would come to Washington and in effect defend this kind of activity. This is an affront I think to every taxpayer. It is in an affront to every democratic loving American, that groups can literally use and abuse the taxpayers' money to advance their political agenda. It is almost as big an offense to me to see groups coming and defending this kind of activity. Now, I will be the first to admit that the legislation that is being advanced may not be perfect, but it is hard for me to imagine anybody saying that there is not a serious problem. This is a serious problem. This is probably only the tip of the iceberg.”