Washington, D.C. - Congressmen Dave Loebsack (IA-02) and Tom Cole (OK-04) today applauded the Senate passage of language that would strip tax payer funding for this fall's political party conventions. Cole introduced similar legislation in the House and Loebsack recently became the first Democrat to cosponsor the bill. The Senate attached this language as an amendment to the Farm Bill by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 95-4.
"I applaud the Senate for including language to strip this unnecessary funding. Both Democrats and Republicans are fully capable of funding their own party conventions and do not need to have this tax payer subsidy," said Loebsack. "I am hopeful the House will move on Congressman Cole's legislation after such a strong, bipartisan vote in the Senate."
"The overwhelming Senate vote in favor of ending taxpayer funding of political conventions is proof that it's time to terminate this outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars," said Cole. "After 40 straight months of 8 percent unemployment and massive budget deficits, it would be an embarrassment to go into this year's conventions with this policy still in place. The House has already voted to end funding once. With passage of the Senate amendment, I'm hopeful that we can build on the growing bipartisan support to sign this commonsense reform into law before another dollar of taxpayer money is wasted on conventions."
###
