FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2008
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Bosse Calls for Franking Reform

Challenges Hodes to stop abusing taxpayer privileges

(Concord)  Hillsboro Republican Grant Bosse today introduced a plan to end Congressional abuse of tax dollars and the use of the Franking Privilege to re-elect Members of Congress.  Bosse outlined three steps that would prevent Congressmen from using tax dollars for self-promotion, and challenged incumbent Democrat Paul Hodes to support these overdue reforms.

“Paul Hodes has sent out over a million pieces of mail and spent nearly a quarter million taxpayer dollars to get re-elected,” Bosse said.  “With these reforms, we can preserve the right of the people to communicate with their government while ending such abuse of the franking privilege.”

Bosse’s plan includes three simple steps:

·         Prevent the transfer of tax dollars to political organizations, and make anyone who does personally responsible for reimbursing the Treasury.  Both Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter paid the New Hampshire Democratic Party for its politically-targeted mailing list using taxpayer funds.[1]

·         Prohibit unsolicited mass mailings.  Rep. Ray LaHood has introduced similar legislation, which has received no action by the Democratic Leadership for over a year.[2]

·         Require all mass mailings to include the total cost to taxpayers.  Rep. Jeff Flake has introduced legislation to let taxpayers know how much of their money is being spent on Congressional propaganda.  This proposal has also languished for over a year.[3]

“The public deserves to get answers when they ask Congress a question.  They don’t deserve to be flooded with political propaganda, and then be forced to foot the bill,” Bosse added.  “By supporting these reforms, Paul Hodes can show that he’s more concerned about protecting taxpayers than his own re-election.”