Statement for Press Conference

Statement

Thank you all for coming.

On behalf of the taxpayers of the 23rd Congressional District, I have two messages for Congressman Tom Reed today: renounce Congressional perks, and release the House Ethics Committee documents regarding the investigation into your law firm.

Today, as I stand in front of Congressman Tom Reed's family business, where he sued his own constituents and chased after them to collect their medical debt, I am deeply troubled by the leadership and our own current representation in Congress.

Congressman Tom Reed has a record of accepting and abusing the perks that he has enjoyed throughout his tenure in office. And we now know that the House Ethics Committee has voted -- behind closed doors -- to shroud one of those most lucrative perks in greater secrecy than before the Watergate era more than 30 years ago. (The National Journal story is in your packet.)

Now, thanks to the secret House Ethics Committee vote, lawmakers don't have to report the free, luxury trips they receive from private groups while in office.

I call on Congressman Reed to renounce these perks and demand greater, not less transparency in reporting gifts received by Members of Congress.

Last week I pledged not to take taxpayer funded perks for members of Congress if elected and called on Congressman Reed to do the same. Congressman Reed refuses to join me in pledging not to take these taxpayer funded perks and he continues to use the office for his own personal financial gain. Members of Congress shouldn't get special perks on the taxpayers' dime, and shouldn't be able to hide information about the perks they're taking.

While in Congress supposedly looking out for taxpayers and the middle class, Congressman Tom Reed has taken or had available to him the following Congressional perks:

Travel junkets paid for by private groups with legislative agendas
Taxpayer-funded first class airfare
Taxpayer-funded campaign-style mailers to constituents
Taxpayer-funded luxury cars
Taxpayer-funded gym

And even worse, as someone who has paid his taxes late 39 times, Congressman Reed has voted against requiring members of Congress to disclose how the tax breaks they vote for would personally benefit them. Why vote for more secrecy? What is Congressman Reed hiding?

Last Friday, I called on Congressman Tom Reed to join me in renouncing taxpayer-funded perks and to look out for the hardworking families of the 23rd District rather than himself and the special interests that are funding his campaign. He has yet to do so.

In fact, Congressman Reed voted to raise taxes on the middle class while granting more tax breaks to special interests and the super-wealthy, when he voted for the Republican budget.

Beyond the perks that are available to him as a member of Congress, Mr. Reed has a particular record of using his position for his own benefit.

While Congressman Reed voted to shut down the government and proclaimed publicly that he would refuse his pay during the shutdown, he himself later cashed the check. And the health insurance subsidy that he railed against -- and introduced legislation against? He took that subsidy when nobody was watching.

Not only did Congressman Reed own and operate a law firm that continued to use his name and sue his own constituents as a member of Congress, but he has refused to release documents between his lawyers and the House Ethics Committee, which he has said is investigating the matter. Why the secrecy? What is Congressman Reed hiding? We learned of this investigation from Congressman Reed himself back in February but he has still not come clean on the correspondence between his lawyers and the House Ethics Committee. I call on Reed to release the documents.

Congressman Reed continues to vote in his own interests, to expand tax breaks for millionaires like him, to protect the perks of being a Congressman, and to hide this information from the public. He refuses to be transparent about his own possible ethics violations, and about how the tax breaks he has voted for would personally benefit himself, rather than looking out for the people of the 23rd District and trying to improve the economic situation here in the Southern Tier.

Once again I call on Congressman Tom Reed to release the documents and renounce the perks. Voters have a right to know who Congressman Reed is working for, because he is not working for them. I believe his inaction on these critical issues of transparency and ethics -- and character -- speaks for itself.

Thank you.

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