Lawmakers to discuss Congress' fundraising culture May 16

Representatives David Jolly, R-Fla, and Rick Nolan, D-Minn, will discuss the long hours members of Congress spend making phone calls to raise political funds and their proposals to place limits on this activity at a Newsmaker on Monday, May 16 at 10 a.m., in the Club’s Bloomberg Room. National Press Club President Thomas Burr will moderate the news conference.

In February, Jolly introduced the Stop Act (H.R. 4443), which would ban Members of Congress from personally asking for money.

Nolan was one of the first to cosponsor the bipartisan legislation. The Minnesota Congressman served three terms in the House in the 1970s and later was re-elected to Congress in 2013. Nolan says that when he returned he hardly recognized the institution because of the amount of time members spend dialing for dollars.

Jolly, Nolan and other sponsors of the Stop Act maintain that this is a Congressional reform that can change the culture of Washington, forcing members to put down the phone and get back to solving the nation’s most pressing problems.