Harry Reid: “I certainly applaud and support all retailers who have joined with charities to permit access to solicitation in light…”

“I certainly applaud and support all retailers who have joined with charities to permit access to solicitation in light of the events of September 11 and those that were doing it prior to September 11. What my friend, the distinguished Senator from Arkansas, has said is that many retailers have adopted a blanket no-solicitation rule to avoid having to create a similar form for labor unions. In effect, that is what he said. There has been an assertion made that this interferes with their ability to raise charitable donations. Yet his own materials, which certainly are available to anyone, show last year charities raised over $100 million at the storefronts of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club alone, just those stores. That is great. I think that is very nice. But it seems to me the retailers, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, have done very well without this amendment. This amendment prohibits funds to the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, to enforce the laws and rules that require employers to provide access to all charitable and civic and labor organizations.”