Chamber Lies About Membership, Representation, And Decision Making

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Stop The Chamber, www.stopthechamber.com, a VelvetRevolution.us campaign, calls on Congress to hold investigative hearings on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's recent misrepresentations that it has three million members, represents all the nation's small businesses, and speaks for its entire membership. All of these assertions are false and are intended to mislead Members of Congress in order to portray the Chamber as the leading voice of American business. Congress must hold the Chamber accountable for such dishonest misrepresentations. We call on Congress, at a minimum, to direct the Chamber to place a truthful, sworn statement in the Congressional Record setting out its exact membership, which members provide funding and how much, and how policy decisions are made at the Chamber.

In a December 10, 2009, letter to members of the House, Change to Win's Executive Director Chris Chafe said: "The Chamber appears to be exaggerating the size of its membership, putting its policy positions up for sale to the highest bidder, and thereby providing cover for the giant financial services firms whose past recklessness Congress rightly seeks to reform through the CFPA and other measures." Copy on www.stopthechamber.com. In fact, according to recent investigations, the Chamber has 2.8 million fewer members than it told Congress, and of those, 50 top contributors accounted for 47% of its total revenue in 2008, including toxic financial firms such as Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services, and M&I Bank.

Moreover, the decisions of the Chamber are made by a select few insiders rather than by its members or even its board. Nike recently quit the Chamber board because the Chamber was taking extremist positions without consulting its members. And small businesses across America do support health reform in order to contain costs, banking regulation in order to ensure a stable economy, and environmental protections to help keep their employees healthy. The Chamber does not speak for the majority of small businesses.

Former New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer said this about the Chamber's CEO: "Tom Donohue has never once found a crime that he couldn't justify, as long as it was committed by one of his dues-paying members." Congress must hold Mr. Donohue accountable for adding lying to Congress to his list of justifiable crimes.

SOURCE StopTheChamber.com

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