[国会记录：2009年1月7日（众议院）][第H45-H48页]TOWNS先生，2009年总统图书馆捐赠改革法案。议长女士，我动议暂停实施规则，并通过法案（H.R.36），修订《美国法典》第44编，要求提供总统图书馆筹款组织捐款人的信息。秘书宣读了议案的标题。法案内容如下：H.R.36，由美利坚合众国参众两院在国会通过，第1节。简称。该法案可引称为《2009年总统图书馆捐赠改革法案》。秒。2.总统图书馆。（a） 总的来说。--美国法典第44编第2112节通过在末尾添加以下新小节进行了修订：`（h）（1）任何总统图书馆筹款机构应按照第（2）款的规定每季度提交一次，关于在季度期间向本组织提供总额为200美元或以上的捐款（无论是货币捐款还是实物捐款）的每个捐款人的信息``（2） 就第（1）款而言，``（A）根据该款应向其提交信息的实体为行政当局、众议院监督和政府改革委员会以及参议院国土安全和政府事务委员会``（B） 根据该段提交信息的日期为每年4月15日、7月15日、10月15日和次年1月15日（第四季度提交）``（C） 根据该款提交信息的要求应持续到以下情况中的较晚者：`（i）档案管理员已接受、取得对任何土地或设施的所有权或签订协议，将其用于档案保管``（ii）档案存放在保管处的总统不再担任总统职务，任期四年（自总统离任之日起）``（3） 在本小节中：`（A）`总统图书馆筹款组织'一词是指为筹集资金在下列地点设立、维持、扩大或开展活动而设立的组织——`（i）总统档案保管处；或``（ii）与总统档案保管处有关的任何设施``（B） “信息”一词是指：`（i）第（1）款所指的出资人在提交材料所涉季度所作的每项出资的金额或价值``（ii）每份该等出资的来源，以及作为出资来源的实体或个人的地址``（iii）如该项供款的来源是个人，则指该个人的职业``（iv）每份该等供款的日期``（4） 档案管理员应在每季度提交根据第（1）款提交的任何信息后，尽快通过互联网（或公众随时可获得的后续技术）向公众提供信息。信息应在可搜索、可排序和可下载的数据库中免费提供``（5） （A）任何作出第（1）款所述贡献的人，如明知而故意提交虚假的重要资料或遗漏与该款所述对某组织的贡献有关的重要资料，即属违法``（B） 《美国法典》第18编第1001节所述的处罚应适用于违反（a）项的行为，其方式与该节所述的违反行为相同``（6） （A）任何总统图书馆筹款组织根据第（1）款故意提交虚假材料信息或遗漏材料信息，均属违法``（B） 《美国法典》第18编第1001节所述的处罚应适用于违反（a）项的行为，其方式与该节所述的违反行为相同``（7） （A）任何人明知而故意—“（i）以另一人的名义作出第（1）款所述的贡献，即属违法``（ii）允许其姓名用于实现第（1）款所述的出资；或``（iii）接受第（1）款所述由一人以另一人的名义作出的贡献``（B） 1971年《联邦竞选法》（2 U.S.C.437g（d））第309（d）节规定的处罚适用于违反（a）项的行为，其方式与违反该法案第316（B）（3）节（2 U.S.C.441b（B）（3））的行为相同``（8） 档案管理员应为执行本小节的目的颁布法规。”。（b） 适用性。--《美国法典》第44编第2112（h）节（由（a）小节增补）-（1）应适用于为该目的而成立的组织se of raising funds for creating, maintaining, expanding, or conducting activities at a Presidential archival depository or any facilities relating to a Presidential archival depository before, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act; and (2) shall only apply with respect to contributions (whether monetary or in-kind) made after the date of the enactment of this Act. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York. General Leave Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New York? There was no objection. Mr. TOWNS. 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. Mr. ISSA. 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 [[Page H46]] 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. Mr. GOHMERT. 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. Mr. TOWNS. 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). {time} 1045 Mr. CLAY. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding. As an original cosponsor of the Presidential Library Donation Act, I rise in strong support of H.R. 36, and I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of it. Federal election law limits the amount a single source can give to a political campaign and requires that donations and donor information be disclosed to the public. These requirements help to preserve the integrity of our democratic system by ensuring that campaign donors do not exercise undue influence over elected policy-makers. Similar requirements do not apply to Presidential library fund- raising campaigns, and this creates the potential for large donors to exert, or appear to exert, improper influence over a sitting President. The fact that private foundations are required to raise money to build and maintain Presidential libraries lowers the burden on taxpayers, but it also increases the incentive to pursue aggressive fund-raising for libraries that have become more and more expensive over the years. Under H.R. 36, Presidential library foundations would be required to report on a quarterly basis all donations of $200 or more. This requirement would apply to donations made to the foundation during the time that the President is in office and during the period before the Archives agrees to use the land or the facility. In addition, the proposal calls on the Archivist to make all reports available to the public online through a searchable and downloadable database. I commend Chairman Towns for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this important bipartisan bill. Mr. ISSA. 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. Mr. DUNCAN. 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. [[Page H47]] 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. Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, may I ask how many speakers does the minority have left. Mr. ISSA. We have no further speakers at this time. If the gentleman's prepared to close, I will be brief. Mr. TOWNS. I'm prepared to close. Mr. ISSA. 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. Mr. TOWNS. 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. Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Towns for bringing this bill to the floor today. H.R. 36, the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act has a simple purpose. It requires that the organizations created to raise money for presidential libraries and their affiliated institutions disclose information about their donors. The lack of any such requirement creates opportunities for abuse. Under current law, anybody can give to these organizations anonymously, even while the President is still in office. These donations could be used to influence presidential decision-making with no public disclosure. This is not the first time this bill has come before the House. In 2001, Representative Duncan introduced similar legislation. I thank him for his early leadership on this issue. And in 2007, I introduced H.R. 1254 with Representatives Duncan, Clay, Platts, and Emanuel. That bill passed the House with an overwhelming majority in the last Congress. I urge my colleagues once again to support this straightforward legislation. Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, today, the House considers the Presidential Libraries Donation Reform Act. I was a cosponsor of this bill when it was originally introduced in 2007 and I am proud to stand in support of it today. Under current law, a sitting president can accept private donations in unlimited amounts for the purpose of building a presidential library. There is no requirement that the donor's identity or the amount of the donation be disclosed. The potential for abuse here is obvious. This bill requires presidential libraries fundraising organizations to disclose to Congress information about the donors and their donations during and immediately following the president's term in office. The bill originally passed the House on suspension in March 2007, and returns to the House floor today after receiving strong support in the Senate. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of bipartisan legislation. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. 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. Mr. TOWNS. On that note, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 36. The question was taken. The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it. Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the [[Page H48]] Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. ____________________