[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            OUTSIDE COUNSEL NEEDED IN SPEAKER'S ETHICS CASE

  (Mr. WARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WARD. Mr. Speaker, last week on this floor I was told by the 
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, that as a freshman I should learn 
the rules. This weekend I have been studying and what I have studied 
has discouraged me a lot.
  What I have found is that, according to the Washington Post, all five 
Republican members of the Ethics Committee broke with 15 years of 
bipartisan tradition and voted unanimously to block an independent 
outside counsel to investigate the charges that have been leveled 
against Speaker Gingrich.
  We need to go back to the way the Democrats did it. Under Democratic 
leadership, the Ethics Committee has appointed an outside counsel to 
investigate every major ethics case since 1979. I urge the Ethics 
Committee to do the same in this case. What is to be hidden? What is to 
be gained? If there is nothing there, let an outside counsel clear the 
air.

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