[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      COMMENTS ON HOUSE HISTORIAN

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the house for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, a new chapter opened today in the history 
surrounding the hiring and the firing of the House Historian. Today, 
the former Historian reveals to the Atlanta Constitution that she had 
indeed informed the Speaker's office about her views on the teaching of 
the Holocaust before she was hired. This directly contradicts the 
statements that had been made by the Speaker's office. The Historian 
was fired because her opposition to funding a course on the Holocaust 
was wrong because it did not reflect what she called the Nazi point of 
view or the Ku Klux Klan point of view. Such extremism from the person 
hired to chronicle an important part of the history of our government 
is an affront to this body and to all Americans.
  How could a person known to have such extreme views on this issue and 
one that is so sensitive to so many Americans, how could that person 
have been hired? But perhaps we should not be surprised. This is not 
the only office that the new Speaker has turned into a partisan 
political tool. The same thing was done in selecting the House 
administrator. I fear that we are seeing the beginning of a dangerous 
pattern.


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