Duncan Bill Sheds Light on Presidential Libraries

Washington, DC --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.

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.