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Washington, D.C.-Congressman Gene Green (D-Houston) today, along with other Members of the Texas Delegation, sent the following letter to Governor Rick Perry urging the Governor to terminate all State contracts with private lobbying firms.
The letter comes after news that while the Office of State Federal Relations terminated their contracts with lobbyists, the Texas Department of Transportation, which has offices in D.C., has maintained and increased its contracts with outside lobbyist.
In previous communications with Governor Rick Perry, Congressman Gene Green and the Texas Delegation had called on the Governor to cancel all contracts with private DC lobbying firms. While the Delegation does not object to state agencies hiring outside experts to work with federal executive branch agencies, state funds should not be spent to lobby Congress. The State of Texas has 32 Representatives and 2 senators to represent Texas. The hiring of private lobby firms is a waste of taxpayer money.
January 24, 2007
The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor
State of Texas
PO Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Dear Governor Perry:
Thank you for coming to Washington, D.C. last Friday for a frank discussion of views regarding Texas’ federal legislative priorities and a wide variety of state issues as well. We hope to build off that first meeting for a more productive working relationship in the future.
Prior to the meeting, the Office of State Federal Relations notified our office that they had exercised their option to cancel their contracts with outside lobbyists hired to lobby Congress. As we have repeatedly expressed, the Constitution assigns Texas 32 U.S. House Members and 2 Senators and the State maintains D.C. offices with state employees to handle Texas’ federal legislative priorities. In our most recent letter, the entire delegation wrote: “[w]e urge you to terminate any contracts the State of Texas maintains with any outside lobbyists involved with the U.S. House of Representatives and do not replace them with other lobbyists.”
Accordingly, we were surprised to learn that the Texas Department of Transportation, which maintains a separate D.C. office from OSFR, also has had outside lobbyists under a separate contract to lobby Congress for the past two years, and instead of canceling these contracts has recently expanded them. To our knowledge, these lobbyists never worked with any Democratic Member of the delegation over the past two years. Please inform us if there are any other federal Congressional lobbyists receiving state taxpayer funds through other state agencies.
Unfortunately, we must repeat that we are opposed to all outside lobbyist contracts with the State of Texas to lobby Congress. Hiring specialized outside contracts to deal with federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Transportation may be justified, but hiring Congressional lobbyists to lobby for Texas is an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money when Texas already has state employees in Washington and 34 Members of Congress.
Thank you for your consideration of our views and we look forward to working with you on Texas federal priorities in the 110th Congress.
The letter was signed by the following members:
Rep. Gene Green
Rep. Solomon Ortiz
Rep Lloyd Doggett,
Rep Nick Lampson,
Rep Ruben Hinojosa,
Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee,
Rep Ciro Rodriguez,
Rep Al Green
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