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PRESS RELEASE
 June 20, 2002
Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director Bob Williams testifies before Congress on NEA’s illegal politics
Williams discussed the political power of the National Education Association (NEA) and the illegal and illegitimate methods the union uses to build and maintain its power, including the unauthorized use of dues taken from unwilling teachers. "What the teacher union does to its members may be the last institutionalized civil rights violation remaining in our nation," said Williams. A former CPA and government auditor, Williams has personally reviewed more than 60,000 internal union documents. The Foundation has gone deeper into the teacher union's books than any organization previous in a seven-year battle with the NEA and its Washington state affiliate. The investigations and complaints filed by EFF have resulted in two lawsuits being filed against the union by Washington's state attorney general, a superior court ruling of intentional and willful violations of teachers' rights, and more than $1 million in penalties against the NEA's Washington affiliate. Also testifying at the same Congressional hearing was Robert Chanin, NEA's General Counsel, who once said in U.S. District Court: "It is well-recognized that if you take away the mechanism of payroll deduction, you won't collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers. . . . [They] simply don't come up with the money regardless of the purpose." Bob's written testimony
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WASHINGTON,
DC — Bob Williams, president of the Washington state-based Evergreen
Freedom Foundation (EFF), testified before the U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections today.
1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
