February 2, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E157 CHANGING THE WAYS AND MEANS willing to testify at the hearing. Since they VOTING OPPORTUNITY AND TECH- COMMITTEE ON BEHALF OF THE were the key witnesses, our hearing was fair- NOLOGY ENCHANCEMENT DEMOCRATS ly meaningless. The Chairman had said he RIGHTS (VOTER) ACT OF 2005 would support additional efforts if ‘‘laws had been broken.’’ Later independent analysis HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK from both CRS and GAO found that laws had HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR. OF CALIFORNIA indeed been broken, but the promised over- OF MICHIGAN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES sight never materialized. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Separate from the Scully incident was the Wednesday, February 2, 2005 discovery that CMS had paid consultants to Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, when the Ways produce news videos on the Medicare pre- Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to and Means Committee held our organizational scription drug bill. GAO found that these ads introduce on behalf of myself and 25 col- meeting earlier today, I offered an amendment were covert propaganda and should not have leagues the Voting Opportunity and Tech- to change the committee rules on behalf of the been allowed. In their report, the GAO Gen- nology Enhancement Rights Act, or the Democrats. My amendment would have al- eral Counsel stated, ‘‘In a modest but mean- VOTER Act of 2005, legislation that will help ingful way, the publicity or propaganda re- lowed the minority party to conduct oversight striction helps to mark the boundary be- ensure that all voters who are eligible to vote hearings on the administration when the ma- tween an agency making information avail- are able to vote and have their vote properly jority refused to do so. Such a change is vi- able to the public and agencies creating news counted in Federal elections. tally important because, with Republicans con- reports unbeknownst to the receiving audi- We have just experienced the second con- trolling both Congress and the White House, it ence.’’ secutive presidential election where issues is clear that they do not want to expose prob- Marriage Promotion: Now we’re discov- were raised concerning irregularities and im- lems that exist in the Bush administration. ering that the use of propaganda was not proprieties. For example, in Ohio we learned Below is my statement in support of the limited to promoting last year’s Medicare of the misallocation of voting machines, which amendment I offered. It was defeated on party bill. Everyone has already heard about the led to lines of 10 hours or more and Department of Education grant to conserv- disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of lines. I encourage my colleagues and the pub- ative talk show host Armstrong Williams. lic to read this statement and take notice of But, that isn’t in our committee’s jurisdic- thousands, of predominantly minority voters. the fact that Congress’ duty to conduct over- tion. Other examples are however. We also learned of numerous incidents of sight is being undermined in this Republican- Thanks to the work of reporters at the voter intimidation, as well as the dissemination run House of Representatives. The full state- Washington Post, Salon and USA Today of misleading information. Members on both ment follows: (thankfully those entities still do oversight), sides of the aisle acknowledge that further re- As we consider changes to the Committee’s it has been discovered that HHS has provided forms are needed to ensure that all of our citi- rules, I have an amendment to offer on be- grants to columnists to promote Bush’s mar- zens’ rights to vote are protected. half of the Democrats. riage promotion agenda. As a result, the VOTER Act will provide for The purpose of my amendment is to re- Specifically, Maggie Gallagher, a syn- a uniform Federal write-in/absentee ballot; re- store the duty of oversight to our com- dicated columnist, was paid $21,500 to pro- quire states to provide for a verifiable audit mittee. Since President Bush took office, mote the Bush marriage agenda in her col- trail; ensure that provisional ballots cast any- House Republicans have decided that con- umns. She is president of the Institute for ducting oversight of the Administration is Marriage and Public Policy, a frequent tele- where in a state are counted; eliminate dis- not a necessary function. We’d like to fix vision guest, and has written on marriage for parities in the allocation of voting machines that. the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and poll workers among a state’s precincts; My amendment is very straightforward. It and Weekly Standard. She did not disclose mandate early voting and election day reg- would allow the Ranking Member to request that HHS had paid her to promote the mar- istration procedures; protect against improper in writing that the Chairman hold a hearing riage initiative when she was touting it in purging of registration lists in federal elections; regarding alleged ethical misconduct or any columns and on television. provide for a study regarding making election violation of the law by an Administration Michael McManus, a conservative author employee. If the Chairman chose not to hold day a public holiday; ease voter registration and self-proclaimed marriage expert, who requirements; allow voter identification by writ- a hearing within 30 calendar days, then the writes a syndicated column ‘‘Ethics & Reli- minority would be allowed to move forward gion’’ also received federal funds from HHS ten affidavit; study eliminating partisan election with an official Ways and Means Hearing. We to train ‘‘marriage mentors’’ ($4000) and officials from administering federal elections; would schedule it. We would invite the wit- $49,000 to promote marriage among unwed enhance training for election officials; require nesses. We would have subpoena authority as couples. He did not disclose this relationship the use of publicly available open source soft- well. when writing in support of the marriage ini- ware in voting machines; provide uniform Why is this amendment needed? tiative in his columns during this same time. standards for vote recounts; prohibit voting This amendment is vitally necessary be- Social Security: Last week, two Social Se- machine companies from engaging in political cause the Committee on Ways and Means is curity Administration employees came forth no longer doing its job with regard to pro- activities; and enhance legal protections to raise their concerns that government em- against voter intimidation and threats. tecting the integrity of the programs under ployees within SSA are being required to our jurisdiction. promote President Bush’s Social Security The legislation is supported by the NAACP, The lack of oversight is a problem across privatization agenda. Aside from being im- the NAACP Voter Fund, the Progressive our committees in Congress, but let me pro- proper, this is probably illegal as well. Our Democrats of America, the UAW, the Black vide three prime examples of this problem Senate Democratic Colleagues exposed this Leadership Forum, Rainbow Push, and the with the Ways and Means Committee’s juris- latest example of potential wrongdoing. National Voting Rights Institute. The legislation diction: Medicare: There are at least two inci- Mr. Chairman, these are three glaring ex- is the House counterpart to S. 17, legislation dents—that we know of—related to the Medi- amples of potential misuse of taxpayer funds introduced in the Senate by Senator CHRIS care debate from the 108th Congress. in areas all under the jurisdiction of our DODD on behalf of the Senate Democratic First, the Committee failed to fulfill its committee. Yet, we’ve done nothing to inves- Leadership. duties investigating former CMS Adminis- tigate these allegations to discover if they It is imperative that we have elections that trator Tom Scully’s actions to gag Chief Ac- are improper—or worse, to find out if the problems are even more widespread. count every vote of every eligible voter. A pro- tuary Rick Foster from responding to our re- visional ballot cast anywhere in the State of quests relating to the Medicare bill in 2003. Many of us on the Democratic side of the Given that I had always assumed we had a aisle have stepped up to investigate these al- Ohio should count just as it does in the State mutual interest in protecting the preroga- legations. We’ve requested GAO reports as of Iowa. There is no reason that voters in tives of the Committee and Congress, I was I’ve cited above. Unfortunately, there is no inner city areas should be forced to wait in surprised and disappointed that the majority enforcement for GAO when they find viola- long lines, while their counterparts in the sub- doesn’t apparently share this view. tions of the law. It is up to us in Congress to urbs are able to vote immediately. If voters in The Chairman may well try to make the pursue remedies or to change the law to pre- Oregon can vote early, why can’t voters in case that we held two hearings on this last vent future violations. Michigan; if citizens of Idaho enjoy same day year. While we did hold one routine hearing I urge my colleagues to support my amend- registration, why can’t voters in Florida; and if on the Trustees Report, which happens each ment. It seems very clear that Republicans year, the other one came about only because don’t intend to do this oversight on their voters in Wisconsin can have their elections Democrats forced it through the use of own. At least give us the ability to conduct administered by nonpartisan boards, why can’t House Rule 11.