A 22-year-old federal law that allows people to be held without charges if they have information about others' crimes is coming under fresh scrutiny in the courts, in Congress and within the Justice Department after reports that it has been abused in terrorism investigations.

We urge you to support Senator Kerry’s Unchecked Power Amendment. This amendment is essential to ensuring a system of checks and balances and protecting individuals from unfettered executive decision-making.

May 12, 2005

Representative Mark Souder
Chairman
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug
Policy and Human Resources

Representative Elijah Cummings
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug
Policy and Human Resources

Dear Chairman Souder and Ranking Member Cummings:

The undersigned organizations urge you to include provisions in any legislation re-authorizing the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) similar to those you added to H.R. 2086 in 2003; namely prohibiting the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign from being used for “express advocacy in support of or to defeat any clearly identified candidate, clearly identified ballot initiative, or clearly identified legislative or regulatory proposal” (Section 709(d)(3) of H.R. 2086).

Simply put, regardless of the issue, taxpayer money should never be used by government officials to influence election outcomes. We urge the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources to adopt language similar to that in H.R. 2086 and apply it to all ONDCP expenditures, as well as advocate this standard for all federal agencies.

The problem of federal officials campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime is real and it is bipartisan. In 1999, Clinton administration officials campaigned against a state initiative that would have allowed the “concealed carry” of handguns. During the 2002 election, federal campaigning on a ballot initiative in Nevada was so intense that the state’s Attorney General complained in a letter to the Nevada Secretary of State that, “it is unfortunate that a representative of the federal government substantially intervened in a matter that was clearly a State of Nevada issue. The excessive federal intervention that was exhibited in this instance is particularly disturbing because it sought to influence the outcome of a Nevada election.”

We are deeply concerned that the precedent of allowing for campaigning by ONDCP officials will inevitably lead to campaigning by IRS officials, EPA officials, and other officials from myriad federal agencies that have a direct stake in the electoral process. This concern is even graver now that the Office of Special Counsel has ruled that the Hatch Act does not apply to ballot measures, thus giving federal bureaucrats the green light to use taxpayer money and government employees to campaign for or against local and state ballot measures.

The danger of allowing public officials to campaign should be obvious to all Members of Congress. It is important to reiterate, however, that the role of government – and by extension government officials – is to respond to the will of the American people, not influence the will of the people. Forcing taxpayers to fund the salaries of public officials to campaign, not to mention the costs of campaign advertising and other political activities is unconscionable.

In addition to adding provisions prohibiting the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign from being used to influence elections and legislation, we urge you to explicitly prohibit ONDCP from using any taxpayer money to influence elections and legislation. We also urge you to put such provisions in bills reauthorizing other agencies. We appreciate your hard work in ensuring that taxpayer money is never used for political purposes.

Sincerely,

Richard Lessner
American Conservative Union