Former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert spending taxpayer's money while lobbying for Turkey
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, serves as a foreign agent for the Turkish government to lobby against the Armenian Genocide Resolution while spending over $40,000 a month of U.S. taxpayers money on office space, staff, cell phones and a leased SUV,
as reported by Politico; a political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, and highlighted by the Armenian Council of America.
The ethics and transparency on the issue has been called into question, since Under Federal law the utilization of such a salary paid for by US taxpayers is provided to former Speakers of the House for up to five years as long as the funds are not used in the course of lobbying. However, as Politico quotes Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority, that sort of separation is hard to maintain. Hastert "has
to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsidized office into his private practice."
Having no other office set aside for lobbying, at present, the federal government pays $6,300 per month to rent Hastert's office in Yorkville, Illinois. Furthermore, the U.S. government pays the
salaries of three of Hastert's assistants in his Illinois office each more than $100,000 in 2008, and an additional $2,000 per month in taxpayer money on a consulting firm, Burnham Strategies, that is run by several of Hastert's former congressional staffers.
In 2000, citing claims by then President Clinton that the consideration of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.R.596) would have endanger American lives, Hastert; as Speaker of the House, broke his pledge to bring the measure to the House floor moments before the resolution was to come for a vote. In 2005, allegations arose that Hastert may have been previously the recipient of tens of thousands of dollars of secret payments from Turkish officials in exchange for political favors and information.
"As an American tax payer and descendent of Armenian Genocide survivors and victims I find it highly repugnant and despicable on many levels that my tax dollars are possibly funding a Turkish lobbyist who works feverishly to deny the historical tragedy of my ancestors," stated Vasken Khodanian, Chairman of Armenian Council of America. "Hastert, through his past record, has clearly shown that he is easily bought by denialists of history and anti human rights
proponents and this is just another example of the type of unprincipled person he has proven to be; taking money from hard working Americans during a time when the nation is in financial crisis to pay for historical revisionism," continued Mr. Khodanian.
as reported by Politico; a political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, and highlighted by the Armenian Council of America.
The ethics and transparency on the issue has been called into question, since Under Federal law the utilization of such a salary paid for by US taxpayers is provided to former Speakers of the House for up to five years as long as the funds are not used in the course of lobbying. However, as Politico quotes Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority, that sort of separation is hard to maintain. Hastert "has
to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsidized office into his private practice."
Having no other office set aside for lobbying, at present, the federal government pays $6,300 per month to rent Hastert's office in Yorkville, Illinois. Furthermore, the U.S. government pays the
salaries of three of Hastert's assistants in his Illinois office each more than $100,000 in 2008, and an additional $2,000 per month in taxpayer money on a consulting firm, Burnham Strategies, that is run by several of Hastert's former congressional staffers.
In 2000, citing claims by then President Clinton that the consideration of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.R.596) would have endanger American lives, Hastert; as Speaker of the House, broke his pledge to bring the measure to the House floor moments before the resolution was to come for a vote. In 2005, allegations arose that Hastert may have been previously the recipient of tens of thousands of dollars of secret payments from Turkish officials in exchange for political favors and information.
"As an American tax payer and descendent of Armenian Genocide survivors and victims I find it highly repugnant and despicable on many levels that my tax dollars are possibly funding a Turkish lobbyist who works feverishly to deny the historical tragedy of my ancestors," stated Vasken Khodanian, Chairman of Armenian Council of America. "Hastert, through his past record, has clearly shown that he is easily bought by denialists of history and anti human rights
proponents and this is just another example of the type of unprincipled person he has proven to be; taking money from hard working Americans during a time when the nation is in financial crisis to pay for historical revisionism," continued Mr. Khodanian.
