[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  THE PUBLIC AND THE HOUSE DESERVE AN OUTSIDE COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE 
                  ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SPEAKER GINGRICH

  (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 Washington Post reports 
that apparently in the consideration of the ethics case against the 
Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich], that the committee 
has arrived at a deadlock on whether or not to turn the case over to an 
outside independent counsel to study the facts and render a finding to 
the committee. Apparently the five Republican Members of the committee, 
according to the Washington Post, voted against doing that.
  When they did that, they broke a 15-year bipartisan tradition in this 
House of taking the tough ethics cases that have unfortunately, from 
time to time, been referred to the committee, and turning them over to 
an outside counsel, so we can get a full rendering of all of the facts 
and all of the issues before the Ethics Committee in an impartial 
fashion. That has been done on a bipartisan basis since 1979.
  Now we find, in the case involving the Speaker, that that apparently 
will not be the case. The chairman and others will not vote. I think it 
is important to understand that the Republican Members of the Congress 
have an ongoing relationship with the Speaker of the House. They have 
contributed to his campaign, he has contributed to theirs. They have 
campaigned for him, he has campaigned for them. They have been the 
recipients of moneys that have been commingled and intermingled.
  These charges are serious. The public deserves better. The House of 
Representatives deserves better. We deserve an outside counsel.

                          ____________________