[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. GINGRICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I ask for this time to discuss the 
schedule and some arrangements that have been made.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GINGRICH. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, it is good to see our friend, the gentleman from 
Illinois, who has survived well an automobile accident. It is good to 
have him back and in good health. We congratulate you for that quick 
recovery.
  Mr. Speaker, in consultation with the Republican leadership, it has 
been determined that we will not consider House Resolution 238 or the 
resolution which I had intended to offer regarding the post office 
investigation today.
  There will be a unanimous-consent request which would allow for these 
resolutions to be brought up next week on Wednesday. However, in the 
meantime, there will be further consultation between the two sides and 
representatives of the ethics committee to determine if a common 
approach can be agreed upon with regard to this matter.
  So at the request of the distinguished minority whip and the 
gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Istook] and others, we had a meeting today 
and came up with this approach which we all agree to.
  So, therefore, we will be putting off those matters and will go 
straight to House Resolution 343 and to a motion to instruct conferees 
on Goals 2000 which should not take all that long to complete today's 
business.
  Mr. GINGRICH. If I might, the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Istook] 
has been very, very cooperative in trying to find a bipartisan way to 
proceed on this, and I think he has several questions and comments he 
wanted to make with the majority leader.
  Mr. ISTOOK. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. GINGRICH. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma.
  Mr. ISTOOK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I appreciate the comments of the majority leader.
  I understand certainly that during this week both sides in good 
faith, of course, will attempt to reconcile the differences in how we 
approach the matter of the House post office investigation. I certainly 
hope that we will be seeking agreement on how to pursue it rather than 
on whether to pursue it, because certainly as you and so many Members 
know, this is a matter that has a great deal of interest and 
significance to the integrity of this body, and I very much appreciate 
the willingness of the majority leader to work with us together since 
ethics is not, and should not be, a partisan matter in trying to find a 
way where this matter can safely be pursued to protect rights and 
interests of all concerned.
  It is my understanding that the rights to bring up House Resolution 
238 or what may be a revised or amended version of it will be protected 
under this agreement and are to be brought up next Wednesday?
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, that is correct.
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, before we get to another matter, let me 
just say for a minute, following on what we did Friday a week ago where 
we had a bipartisan agreement between the leaderships to look into the 
various activities surrounding the paying back of $82,000 by a Member 
and having, I think, since discovered that neither leadership knew what 
was going on in that instance, and we have an institutional commitment 
to work together to protect our integrity, I think this is another step 
that hopefully we can resolve and pursue issues of institutional 
integrity on a genuinely bipartisan basis, and I appreciate the 
majority leader and the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Istook] both 
reaching out and trying to find comity here.
  Mr. ISTOOK. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, I will 
say to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt], I think it would be 
beneficial to the Members just to have a simple description of how the 
gentleman believes we can best proceed during this week of time to try 
to find that common ground.
  Mr. GEPHARDT. If the gentleman will yield further, what we will do is 
have a meeting probably on tomorrow of yourself and various Members on 
your side, various Members on our side, and certainly representatives 
of the Ethics Committee to review how this might be best approached and 
see if a common approach can be arrived at.
  Mr. ISTOOK. I appreciate that time frame, since I understand we will 
not be in session on Friday or Monday, and I think having that meeting 
tomorrow is good for the scheduling to give us time to work on it.

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