mr. chairman , i am pleased that both republican and democrats have accepted my amendment and that it has passed today as part of the unanimous consent agreement . 
mr. chairman , i believe it was a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars by the u.s. department of education to pay $ 240 , 000 to columnist armstrong williams to promote the no child left behind act . 
this amendment ensures that it will never happen again by providing that no taxpayer funds shall be used , either directly or indirectly , by private contractors , which include public relations firms , journalists , and media commentators , to support or defeat legislation pending before this congress . 
the policy behind my amendment is straightforward . 
using taxpayer dollars to bribe journalists to bias their news coverage in favor of legislation is a waste of taxpayer money , it is a black eye on the independence of our free press , and it undermines the integrity of our democracy . 
mr. chairman , let me give you some background as to why this amendment is necessary . 
in january of this year , media reports revealed that the u.s. department of education entered into a $ 1 million contract with a private contractor , known as the ketchum public relations firm . 
this pr firm then turned around and paid $ 240 , 000 in a sub-contract to newspaper columnist and tv commentator armstrong williams to promote the no child left behind act . 
specifically , under the contract , armstrong williams was paid to `` regularly comment on nclb during the course of his broadcasts , '' to `` encourage the producers '' of a cable tv program to `` periodically address '' the nclb law , and it specified that the secretary of education and other education officials would have the right to appear from `` time to time '' as guests on williams ' tv programs . 
shortly after learning about this situation , president bush criticized the education departments $ 240 , 000 payout to armstrong williams and ordered his cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists or commentators to promote administration policies . 
specifically , president bush stated : `` all our cabinet secretaries must realize that we will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda . 
our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet . 
we need to make sure this kind of thing does n't happen again. '' i agree with president bush . 
this is not a republican or democrat issue . 
it 's a common sense issue . 
for example , while the armstrong williams matter happened during the bush administration 's watch , similar problems happened during the clinton administration . 
for example , the gao noted that the clinton administration 's health and human services department used actors in october of 1999 to portray reporters in fake news segments that were distributed to tv stations , without disclosing that the government had actually funded and produced the supposed news segments . 
mr. chairman , it is dead wrong to use taxpayer dollars to pay private contractors , such as public relations firms , journalists and media commentators , to promote legislation pending before this congress , and for that reason , i wholeheartedly thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for voting `` yes '' on my amendment . 
