[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 19 (Monday, February 28, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     INVESTIGATIONS OF CONVENIENCE

                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 28, 1994

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, our colleague, Representative Ernest Istook, 
wrote a superb editorial which appeared in the Washington Times on 
Monday, February 21. The editorial examines the rationale behind the 
upcoming resolution compelling our ethics committee to investigate and 
report allegations of embezzlement at the House post office. The text 
of his article is as follows:

                     Investigations of Convenience

       Congress will have another opportunity soon to clean up its 
     own house, by compelling the House Ethics Committee to open a 
     long-overdue probe of the House Post Office. Several members 
     of Congress evidently used the Post Office to embezzle tens 
     of thousands of dollars from taxpayers. It's time to do 
     something about it.
       The House can find the time to investigate anyone and 
     anything--except itself. Even the U.S. Senate has taken huge 
     chunks of time to launch an ethics probe into sexual 
     harassment allegations aimed at one of its members. Yet 
     embezzlement somehow escapes similar attention from the 
     House!
       The House Post Office affair is a continuing scandal that 
     has never died, though many have sought to bury it. For 
     years, the embezzlement was discussed--and dismissed--as only 
     a rumor. Six postal employees have been convicted of various 
     improprieties, but the last was the bombshell. Last July 19, 
     Robert V. Rota, for 20 years the postmaster, made a surprise 
     guilty plea in federal court to three counts of conspiracy to 
     aid embezzlement. In the court papers, government prosecutors 
     stated they could prove ``the embezzlement of United States 
     funds by certain United States congressmen.'' The court 
     papers described how the scheme worked: Congressmen were 
     given cash from Post Office funds, while official records 
     would make it look like they had bought stamps with their 
     office funds. Although naming no names, the prosecutors 
     implicated ``several members of Congress,'' involving tens of 
     thousands of dollars. But in almost eight months since then, 
     there have been no indictments of any of these.
       How many members of Congress? Who are they? And why has 
     nothing been done about them? The stock answer is that the 
     Justice Department is investigating, so the House should 
     stand aside and leave the matter alone. That answer isn't 
     good enough, for multiple reasons: First, because the House 
     has an independent constitutional duty to act against 
     wrongdoers. Second, because it's questionable whether the 
     Justice Department will resolve the whole mess.
       The House ethics committee's foremost job is to pursue 
     major violators, not minor ones. The Constitution charges us 
     with policing the ``disorderly behavior'' of our members. We 
     cannot pass the buck to anybody else to do this for us. In 
     fact, when a separate House task force reviewed general 
     postal operations in 1992, Mr. Rota lied to cover up the 
     embezzlement scam. The task force also bristled at the 
     suggestion from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Congress 
     should leave such matters alone, only prosecutors should 
     pursue them. Accusing Justice of trying to ``thwart'' 
     internal probing by the House, the Task Force's report stated 
     it was ``hampered by DOJ's intermeddling and interference 
     with this legislative mandate.''
       The proper question is not whether the House should 
     investigate even while anybody else does so. The proper 
     question is how we coordinate and work together. As the task 
     force also conducted, ``Failure to communicate information 
     developed by one branch to assist the other branch represents 
     a gridlock which can not be allowed to continue.'' (The task 
     force also noted that the ethics committee should be used to 
     pursue any alleged wrongdoing by House members or employees.)
       If let to itself, would the Department of Justice clean up 
     this mess? The absence of indictments after eight months is 
     disturbing, especially since the prosecutors at that time 
     told the court confidently that they could prove the 
     embezzlement. It's crucial to recognize that, no matter how 
     diligently a local prosecutor may investigate, issuing 
     subpoenas and questioning witnesses, DOJ will not prosecute a 
     member of Congress without express approval from DOJ's very 
     highest level. The new administration has twice replaced the 
     prosecutor on this case, and the original investigating grand 
     jury was dissolved. The attorney general also recently 
     refused to prosecute two Clinton-Gore campaign workers, who 
     used their new State Department jobs to leak confidential 
     files to the press (doing so to embarrass the Bush 
     administration). Despite strong urging from the inspector 
     general, the attorney general declined to prosecute. If two 
     campaign underlings have the political stroke to escape 
     prosecution, it's natural to wonder whether members of 
     Congress can also evade indictments by the current Department 
     of Justice.
       Many in Washington want to keep the lid on this scandal. 
     There's worry over where an investigation might lead. The 
     House Banking scandal began with a few overdrafts, and 
     exploded to reveal a major pattern of abuses. But this is a 
     different scandal. It's worse. At the House Bank, overdrafts 
     by one member were covered with funds of other members. At 
     the House Post Office, it was taxpayers' money that was 
     directly looted.
       The right course to pursue is the straightforward one. Use 
     the ethics committee. We spend millions of taxpayers' dollars 
     to operate a House ethics committee. It is their duty to 
     pursue the embezzlement, and the duty of every House member 
     to require that this be done. The Justice Department 
     certainly should do its job and pursue the criminal issues, 
     but the House must pursue the broader area of ethics, whether 
     criminal charges are ever brought or not. The House has power 
     to discipline or expel its members. An ethics committee 
     inquiry is the necessary first step in the process.
       More than 50 House members, Republican and Democrat, have 
     joined an effort to start this process. We are acting to 
     force a floor vote, immediately after the President's Day 
     Holiday, on a privileged resolution that compels our ethics 
     committee to open its investigation, and to issue a public 
     report on its findings. Every House Member who votes for the 
     effort will be voting for cleaning up this mess, and 
     declaring that no member of Congress is above the law. All 
     who vote against it will be endorsing business as usual, 
     ignoring the stench of the embezzlement at the House Post 
     Office, and inviting the American people to continue to hold 
     their noses at the very mention of the United States 
     Congress.

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