[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
APPOINTMENT OF OUTSIDE COUNSEL NEEDED
(Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the clouds of scandal once
again are gathering above the House of Representatives. The Wall Street
Journal has been running daily accounts of the special favors that the
contributors of GOPAC and the contributors to the Progress and Freedom
Foundation that are controlled by the Speaker have sought and received.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 10 percent of the contributors
to the Progress and Freedom Foundation are makers of drugs and medical
devices, whom we now learn are the same people who have sought special
legislation and are now seeking to gut the Food and Drug
Administration. What we as Members of the House are witnessing is very
strong suggestion that the House of Representatives is somehow for
sale.
This cannot be allowed to stand. We as Members deserve better, and
the people of this Nation deserve better. It is imperative that the
House Committee on Ethics and its chair, the gentlewoman from
Connecticut, Nancy Johnson, move to appoint outside counsel. Given the
ramifications of these stories and the fact that GOPAC and the Progress
and Freedom Foundation are controlled by the Speaker, the committee has
no other choice. It owes it to the people of this Nation to do so, and
I urge my colleagues to call upon the gentlewoman from Connecticut
[Mrs. Johnson] to appoint outside counsel.
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