Showing posts with label Rep. Hank Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rep. Hank Johnson. Show all posts

Saturday, June 04, 2022

Rep. Hank Johnson calls on U.S. government to spend more with Black Press

Four years after D.C. Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton publicly condemned federal agencies after a Government Accountability Office report revealed they spend very little of their advertising dollars with Black-owned media, another member of the Congressional Black Caucus has openly aired the concerns.

“The federal government spends billions of dollars a year in paid advertising. However, the federal government’s process for allocating advertising dollars fails to recognize and value the unique relationship that Black-owned media have with their audiences,” Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden.

Co-signed by Norton, Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Val Demings (D-Fla.), and 34 other members of Congress, the letter pointed out that the standard process for spending federal advertising dollars consists of giving a prime contract to a large White-owned advertising agency with the stipulation that the agency includes a multicultural agency as a subcontractor.

“However, the prime contractor controls how much money goes to the subcontractor and how that subcontractor spends that money,” Johnson wrote.

“This routinely results in a smaller fraction of federal dollars going to the subcontractors. And, when the subcontractor does get to spend money, it is usually directed to spend that money with Black-targeted media and not with Black-owned media.”

He asserted that “successful Black businesses hire and promote Black Americans at a much higher rate than other businesses. They are, consequently, the key to building successful Black communities.”

In 2018, Norton commissioned a GAO report that revealed that the federal government spent more than $5 billion on advertising over five years. Still, Black-owned businesses received only $51 million, or 1.02 percent of those funds.

“I will work with minority publishers to press [my colleagues] in Congress to demand greater spending on minority-owned outlets to reach minority audiences that most traditional outlets do not,” Norton stated during a 2018 news conference with members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association on Capitol Hill.

“The GAO report showed, as we expected, that the federal government has a long way to go to ensure equal opportunities for minority-owned news outlets,” Norton continued.

“As the nation’s largest advertiser, the federal government has an obligation to provide advertising opportunities to news outlets and media companies owned or published by people of color.”

In April, dozens of federal agencies launched plans for more equity to open federal programs to more people and reduce racial disparities caused by government decisions.

“Advancing equity is not a one-year project. It’s a generational commitment,” Biden stated. “These plans are an important step forward, reflecting the Biden Harris administration’s work to make the promise of America real for every American, and I mean every American.”

In the Johnson-led letter, members of Congress have issued a request for Biden Administration to investigate and report back complex data on “the process by which they grant advertising contracts, and how they oversee those contracts after they are granted.”

“The federal government spends billions of dollars a year in paid advertising. However, the federal government’s process for allocating advertising dollars fails to recognize and value the unique relationship that Black-owned media have with their audiences,” Johnson wrote.

[SOURCE STLAMERICAN]

Monday, January 04, 2021

Rep. Hank Johnson’s Introduces Resolution to Censure Trump For Call to Georgia Secretary of State

Rep. Johnson’s Resolution Censures and Condemns Trump for Blatantly Attempting to Overturn the Results of the November 2020 Presidential Election in Georgia.

Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04) introduced H. Res XX this evening, censuring and condemning President Donald J. Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election in the State of Georgia. He was joined by more than 90 colleagues.

On Saturday, January 2, 2021, President Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State and asked him to illegally fabricate the votes needed for him to win the Georgia vote count. On Sunday, January 3, 2021, the entire audio of the call was reported in The Washington Post. The call lasted more than an hour and involved the President threatening Secretary Raffensperger with vague criminal prosecution threats if he didn’t cooperate. Rep. Johnson moved quickly to condemn President Trump's criminal actions and denounce his flagrant attempts to defraud a legal, fair, and free election.

Rep. Johnson tweeted: [the] president’s call to the Ga. SOS was far from “perfect.” In fact, it is a violation of state and federal law. Tomorrow, I will introduce a resolution of Censure. Trump should resign NOW!

The resolution garnered wide democratic support. Rep. Johnson was joined by Reps. Adams, Auchincloss, Barragan, Bass, Beatty, Beyer, Bishop, Blumenauer, Bonamici, Bourdeaux, Boyle, Bowman, Bush, Butterfield, Carson, Casten, Castor, Castro, Chu, Cicilline, Yvette Clarke, Cohen, Connolly, Cooper, Correa, Courtney, Danny Davis, Dean, DeLauro, Dingell, Doggett, Espaillat, Escobar, Eshoo, Dwight Evans, Foster, Chuy Garcia, Sylvia Garcia, Jimmy Gomez, Al Green, Hayes, Brian Higgins, Himes, Huffman, Jackson Lee, Jayapal, Mondaire Jones, Khanna, Kildee, John Larson, Brenda Lawrence, Barbara Lee, Andy Levin, Mike Levin, Lieu, Lowenthal, Lynch, Matsui, McCollum, McEachin, McGovern, McNerney, Meeks, Meng, Newman, Norton, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pallone, Panetta, Pingree, Pocan, Pressley, Raskin, Rush, Scanlon, Schakowsky, David Scott, Sewell, Sherman, Speier, Suozzi, Swalwell, Takano, Mike Thompson, Tlaib, Rice, Norma Torres, Ritchie Torres, Velázquez, Watson Coleman, Welch.

Read the resolution below:

Resolution censuring Presid... by Councilman George L. Cook III