Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2009

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 36) to amend title 44, United States Code, to require information on contributors to Presidential library fundraising organizations.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 36, the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act, will require organizations raising money to build Presidential libraries and their affiliated institutions to disclose the identities of their donors and the amount of their donations. Like the records bill just considered, an identical version of this bill was considered in the 110th Congress and passed the House with strong bipartisan support.

Presidential libraries are becoming increasingly expensive, and fundraising for their construction begins during a President's term. These are broad campuses with museums, conference centers, and other institutions, some of which are entirely separate from the federally run libraries.

According to press reports, it cost more than $80 million to build George H.W. Bush's library and $165 million to build the Clinton library. Press reports have suggested that the fundraising target for President Bush's library is $500 million.

Under current law, individuals, corporations and even foreign interests can make anonymous, unlimited donations to these organizations. Such donations can be made while the President is still in office. There is enormous potential for abuse in this system. Special interests could make multi-million dollar donations to a Presidential library foundation in an effort to influence the President, and the public would remain completely unaware.

In order to prevent real abuse, as well as the perception of abuse, H.R. 36 would require Presidential library foundations to divulge information about their donors while the President is in office and for the several years after the President's term has ended.

I again thank the ranking member, Mr. Issa from California, for his cooperation on this bill and thank the previous chairman, Mr. Waxman, for his work in this as well.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, let me just say to the gentleman that I really share a lot of his views, and I'm willing to continue to work with him in seeing in terms of what we might be able to do to strengthen this legislation.

At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay).

Madam Speaker, may I ask how many speakers does the minority have left.

I'm prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, our President-elect has talked a lot about transparency. He's really interested in transparency. So improving transparency of donations to Presidential libraries, as this bill does, will assure the American people that their Presidents are not being influenced by unknown persons or groups.

Open government is an important goal of the Congress and the incoming administration, and I hope today's bill is just the right kind of bill to move forward with that in mind.

Let me say, Madam Speaker, this is a good piece of legislation, and I'm hoping that my colleagues join me in supporting this bill. I want to thank the minority for their support, and of course, we will continue to look and see how we might be able to improve the legislation, but I really feel that this is a giant step in the right direction. Transparency is something that we cannot lose sight of.

On that note, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I join with the chairman in recommending swift passage through the House for at least the third time. This bill has passed under

multiple authors, both Republican and Democrat. It is, by nature, one in which we believe we are appropriately asserting a daylight requirement on past and future Presidents and would certainly hope that we would view this bill as noncontroversial in most areas.

Madam Speaker, our Nation's Presidential libraries attract millions of visitors each year. They have become elaborate institutions, and the cost of building and maintaining these facilities has grown dramatically.

Under current law, Presidential libraries are built with private funds, then turned over to the Archivist for operation.

Amendments to the Presidential Libraries Act mandated the establishment of an endowment to cover some of the costs of operating the library, which are usually met through the establishment of a charitable organization.

Funding for construction and the endowment comes from private sources. But under current law, no duty to disclose the source of those contributions exists.

On both sides of the aisle, there is strong support for increasing disclosure.

Earlier, under Mr. Duncan's leadership, the House passed solid bipartisan legislation to require the disclosure of contributions to organizations that raise funds for Presidential libraries and related facilities. And a bill identical to the bill before us passed the House last year by a wide margin.

We recognize the perception of impropriety that contributions to a Presidential library can raise, given the huge sums that must be amassed, and the attraction this avenue may hold for those seeking favors or influence.

This legislation will provide a needed degree of transparency to that process.

If I may, I am going to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) for a particular portion of the bill that he feels, before it becomes law, should ultimately be looked at.

Madam Speaker, it's my pleasure now to yield up to 10 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), the author of the original bill substantially similar to the one today and a constant advocate for this type of transparency.

We have no further speakers at this time. If the gentleman's prepared to close, I will be brief.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume simply to say that I look forward to working with the chairman on any perfecting language here or in the Senate necessary to make this an even more acceptable bill to all Members because I believe that, as Mr. Duncan said, this is a bill whose time has come. We have been more than 6 years attempting to have this happen.

I think one thing that is very clear is that we could talk about library A, library B, library C, but as President Bush leaves office and that library is going to be built in Dallas, I think the American people will want to know every bit as much as with any previous President that that money was given by people who appreciated the legacy of that President and not by people who appreciated specific actions of that President in real-time.

And so I join with the majority and Mr. Duncan, as the original author of some time ago, in asking for quick passage of a bill, perfected as necessary in the work that I expect we will do together.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Towns for attempting to bring greater transparency to presidential library fundraising efforts with H.R. 36, the ``Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2009.''

We are facing a new day, with a new administration, and a new Democratic majority. That is why it is important that we stay true to our core values of fairness, transparency, a accountability.

Starting with the lobbying and ethics reform, we as a body understand that a responsible government allows for openness. This legislation continues to rebuild our trust with the American people.

This legislation requires in part that, ``any Presidential library fundraising organization shall submit on a quarterly basis with respect to every contributor who gave the organization a contribution or contributions (whether monetary or in-kind) totaling $200 or more for the quarterly period.''

Under current law, private organizations established for the purpose of building a presidential library can raise unlimited amounts of money from undisclosed donors while the President remains in office. It takes nothing more than common sense to see the potential for abuse in this area and the need for basic reform.

Presidential libraries serve an important purpose as depositories of presidential papers and centers for historical research. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt came up with the idea of a privately- built, but federally maintained library to house his presidential papers.

This split of responsibilities between the public and the private sectors has continued and has since been codified into law. In 1955, the Presidential Libraries Act formally established a system under which federally maintained libraries would be built using funds raised by private organizations. More recent amendments have required these private organizations to provide an operating endowment to the National Archives in addition to the library building.

Just as the funding requirements have grown, so have the libraries and their affiliated institutions. Now these libraries are much more than basic research facilities. They include museums and conference centers along with other tourist attractions; they are getting more costly all the time.

The George H.W. Bush library was reported to cost more than $80 million to build. The Clinton library and museum cost about $165 million to build. News reports have indicated that the fundraising goal for President Bush's library is $500 million--half a billion dollars-- before this institution is completed.

The vast scale of these secret fundraising efforts creates opportunities for abuse. Donors who do not need to be identified can give unlimited amounts of money to support these libraries while the President remains in office.

This legislation would require that presidential libraries disclose the identity of their donors to Congress and the National Archives during their period of most intense fundraising, which is while the President is in office and in the several years after the end of his term.

This legislation is but one part of a larger effort by this Congress to restore honesty and accountability in the Federal Government.

Conclusion

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Towns and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for helping us build a strong foundation of trust with the American people. I ask my colleagues to support me in supporting H.R. 36.

Madam Speaker, first of all, I will say I thank the gentleman from California, the ranking member, Mr. Issa, for yielding me the time, but I won't need nearly that much time.

I want to thank the gentleman from New York, Chairman Towns, for his support of this issue and this legislation and his effort to bring this bill to the floor as one of the first bills considered in the 111th Congress, and I also want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) for his support of this legislation.

I first introduced this bill in the 106th Congress after reading a front-page story in the Washington Times reporting that foreign governments from the Middle East were making large donations, very large donations, to the proposed library for President Clinton. I was concerned about the influence that donations by foreign governments and perhaps others could have since there was no policy requiring disclosure of donors.

The topic of disclosing contributions made by private donors to Presidential library fund-raising organizations is of great concern to me. These organizations are formed while a President is in office and collect donations from individuals, corporations and foreign governments, with no limit on the contribution amount, and especially when there's no requirement for disclosing the donor or the amounts being donated, there is great potential for abuse.

After I introduced this bill, sometime after I introduced this bill, I learned of the very sizable donations, hundreds of thousands of dollars, given to the Clinton library by Marc Rich's ex-wife, another close friend of the Clintons. Marc Rich, who fled the country after evading over $40 million in Federal income taxes, was granted a pardon on President Clinton's last day in office.

However, this is not a partisan issue. I introduced and have supported this legislation under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, and as Mr. Issa mentioned and Chairman Towns mentioned, it has passed overwhelmingly both times it was considered by the House previously.

Previous attempts to move this bill were met with little interest, I suppose, in the Senate, but perhaps this time around they will take up this issue.

This bill does not prohibit the contributions, including very large contributions. It simply requires Presidential library fund-raisers to disclose donations over $200.

We're back once again, Madam Speaker, today, to try to pass this bill to provide some openness and transparency on the donations made to these organizations and on what could be the potential for abuse under a President of either party in the future.

The price to build these libraries, as Chairman Towns mentioned, has increased dramatically over the last few years from $80 million to the $200 to $500 million estimated for the current President's library.

I think this bill promotes good government and is something that all of my colleagues should be proud to support. If we pass this legislation, it will certainly help to prevent the potential for serious abuse in the years ahead.

And like Chairman Towns, I will be glad to work with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert). I did not have that severe of a penalty in the first legislation that I originally worked on many years ago.

But once again, I want to thank all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their support. This is a very bipartisan bill, and I urge its adoption by this Congress.

Madam Speaker, I do appreciate my friend for yielding.

This is a good overall idea. It's a good bill in general. There needs to be more clarity. Many of us have wondered who is building these Presidential libraries, and this will help inform the public just who it is that's doing that.

The concern I have is that there is a provision in the bill for filing errors or omissions that could send somebody to prison for 5 years. Now as a former judge, I've presided over thousands and thousands of felony cases. I have sent I don't know how many people to prison. That's not a concern. My reputation was, as one criminal was overheard telling another, ``He will give a fair trial, but if you're guilty, you don't want his court.''

I don't have a problem sending people to prison, but one thing, probably the best conservative organization as far as getting out the message, the Heritage Foundation, and the ACLU have actually been in agreement on, this body, almost on whims, throws in a prison sentence as an added provision, and we are having people go to prison who shouldn't. If it is a dollar issue, then fine them 1 million, 10 million, whatever would be appropriate. But we should not, in this body, continually subject people to being taken down in their home, handcuffed when they made an error that should not be criminalized.

So that is the concern I have. This never went through Judiciary. It has been through prior Congresses. It never went through Judiciary, the Crime Subcommittee, to look at that specific aspect. That is a concern, and it is something that we should not be doing, overcriminalizing provisions, by just sticking that in as an exclamation point. It needs to be well thought through before we provide a way to send somebody to prison.

I appreciate the time. I hope that could be taken out because that is an aspect that's inappropriate.