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Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Spending Taxpayers Money Wh

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  • Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert Spending Taxpayers Money Wh

    FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT SPENDING TAXPAYERS MONEY WHILE LOBBYING FOR TURKEY

    armradio.am
    22.12.2009 16:03

    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.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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