[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 397 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
  H. RES. 397

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives concerning the 
President's use of the White House Counsel's Office in matters relating 
                     to his personal legal battles.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 1998

   Mr. Hayworth (for himself, Mr. Archer, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Stump, Mr. 
   Jones, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Largent, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. 
Duncan, Mr. Hilleary, Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania, Mr. Scarborough, Mr. 
   McCrery, Ms. Pryce of Ohio, Mr. Ryun, Mr. Neumann, Mr. DeLay, Mr. 
 Coble, Mr. Rogers, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Collins, Mr. Armey, 
  Mr. McCollum, Mr. Everett, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Livingston, Mr. 
Shadegg, Mr. Talent, and Mr. Smith of Michigan) submitted the following 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform 
                             and Oversight

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives concerning the 
President's use of the White House Counsel's Office in matters relating 
                     to his personal legal battles.

Whereas the White House Counsel's office was established to assist the President 
        in legal analyses of pressing national official issues;
Whereas President George Bush maintained a staff of no more than 8 professional 
        lawyers in the Counsel's office, even during the time of the Persian 
        Gulf crisis;
Whereas, after being sworn into office in 1993, President Clinton maintained a 
        staff of 4 attorneys in the White House Counsel's office;
Whereas, currently, President Clinton maintains a White House Counsel's office 
        staff of 33, at an unprecedented cost of $2,360,000 in salaries alone, 
        all paid by the taxpayers;
Whereas 15 of the attorneys at the White House Counsel's office are ``on loan'' 
        from other executive branch agencies;
Whereas the White House budget report shows that the White House overall has as 
        many as 77 total lawyers on staff and 21 total lawyers on loan;
Whereas salary expenses of the White House Counsel's office comprise nearly 10 
        percent of the total White House salary budget;
Whereas the Chief White House Counsel stated that he spends at least half of his 
        taxpayer-funded office hours working on the President's personal legal 
        issues and such work clearly is not in any way related to official 
        duties of the Office of the President;
Whereas the President retains additional attorneys paid for out of his legal 
        defense fund and these attorneys should bear the sole responsibility for 
        handling the President's personal legal battles; and
Whereas the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that ``to allow any part 
        of the Federal Government to use its in-house attorneys as a shield 
        against the production of information relevant to a Federal criminal 
        investigation would represent a gross misuse of public assets'': Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the President should maintain a distinct line 
between private legal matters and those legal matters related to the 
official business of the United States and should immediately 
discontinue using taxpayer funded attorneys to work on his personal 
legal matters.
                                 <all>