Emanuel on Presidential Library Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel delivered the following statement on the floor of the House of Representatives during consideration of H.R. 1254, the Presidential Library Doantion Reform Act:

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank my colleague from Connecticut and colleague from California and Missouri and my other colleagues for their leadership on this legislation. It is an important part of this legislation, like the other legislation we are doing on whistleblower and protection for whistleblowers as well as the no-bid contracts. If you look at the presidential library and the other two pieces of legislation, they all have a common meaning—to ensure that the public trust is protected from being bent for the private interest.

What we mean here is that in making sure that in a period of time that the President of the United States is raising money for their library, that in no time will their actions or public actions be influenced by those who are willing to support their library.

In the same way that we are trying to make sure later this week when we vote on the no-bid contracts, that in no way should those contracts be renewed automatically for those who have gotten their business, no-bid contracts, and somehow had the influence to get that legislation.

And the whistleblower legislation, all attempted to protect the public trust.

President Bush plans on raising about $500 million for his presidential library.  President Clinton’s library has cost about $165 million and President Bush, the 41st President’s library cost $80 million, slightly more than that—and there are no questions asked about where the money comes from. 

We don’t know who is raising these funds, who is donating them, and if the donors are looking for any favors in return.  This process is overdue for sunlight, and we are reforming that practice here today.

I am proud to have worked with Congressman Waxman, Congressman Clay, Congressman Platts, and Congressman Duncan in drafting this bill, which will require disclosure of any contribution above $200 for a Presidential Library. 

This information will be available online so that every American can see who is sending money to the Oval Office. 

Mr. Speaker, change is good.  Last November, the American people voted for change, and that’s exactly what we are doing this week and this year.  We are changing the way business is done in Washington, and restoring integrity to government.

The first weeks when we were here, we initiated change on banning gifts, banning meals by lobbyists, making sure that earmarks had reform, and this is part of that step-by-step process. You will not change the ways of Washington overnight. You must have a dedicated step-by-step process to bring reform to the way business is done in Washington.

And this is an important step, as will be the whistleblower protection we take on tomorrow and vote on and the no-bid contracts for those who are trying to, contracting reform for the areas of Iraq, Katrina and other places.

As you just saw last week, taxpayers are getting back only 40 cents on the dollar for the trailers they built for the protection of hurricane victims because we did not use it.

We have got to reform the way Washington does work, and this is an important piece of legislation in doing that as part of our overall process.

I thank all my colleagues for their work on this legislation.