On the recordFebruary 26, 2014
I would like to take a moment to address the concerns raised by the gentleman from Virginia before yielding to the author of the bill, Mr. Long. During the markup, Representative Duckworth was concerned about certain agencies like the VA and the Department of Defense; and during the markup, we did add a provision, at the minority's request, that allowed the Office of Management and Budget to implement regulations in exactly how this is going to be done. It certainly does not prohibit ``paid for by the Army'' or ``paid for by the Veterans Administration.'' It would simply add, ``paid for by the Army at taxpayer expense,'' which would clearly be compliant with this law, the idea being to determine what the taxpayers are paying for and what is being donated for time, for instance, by a broadcast facility for public service announcements or to differentiate ads that are not paid for by the government. There is no disclaimer. We know it is not paid for with taxpayer dollars. What we are after here is to let the taxpayer know when they see something on the television, hear something on the radio, or see a printed material that their tax dollars funded it and it is something they can either be proud of or they can pick up the phone and call us up here in Washington, D.C. and say, What the heck are you doing wasting our money on these types of ads? It empowers the public to know. We are not trying to limit Federal agencies.…
