Louise Slaughter: “if the purpose for this amendment today is to find out how much Federal money is being used to lobby by nonprofit…”

“if the purpose for this amendment today is to find out how much Federal money is being used to lobby by nonprofit groups, I can give the answer right now. Zero. It has been against the law here for years. The IRS has never had a single complaint. We brought this up at committee meeting after committee meeting, because we debate this thing once a week, almost. The truth of the matter is that the only thing anybody could ever come up with even a hint of a notion that somebody had misused money, was that the beer wholesalers were mad at the Mother Against Drunk Driving. This amendment tries to demonize the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, Catholic charities, and all other groups out there who are doing work for the Federal Government. It is absolutely nonsense that we waste our time on this.”