[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 92 (Wednesday, June 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5627-H5628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ABSENCE OF APPROVAL BY ETHICS COMMITTEE REVIVES TALK OF OUTSIDE COUNSEL 
                         ON SPEAKER'S BOOK DEAL

  (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, earlier this year, Speaker Gingrich 
promised to get approval for his book deal from the Ethics Committee 
before signing the contract. Now, the Speaker has embarked on a 
nationwide book tour, so the Ethics Committee must have given its OK, 
right? Wrong.
  In fact, the Ethics Committee did not get a chance to rule on the 
propriety of the Speaker's multimillion-dollar book contract, before it 
received a letter from Mr. Gingrich's lawyer saying that Mr. Gingrich 
was going ahead with the deal. The letter reads: ``We will assume that 
Mr. Gingrich's book publishing complies with House rules.''
  But, the chairwoman and the ranking member of the committee quickly 
wrote back to Mr. Gingrich's lawyer saying: ``You should make no such 
assumption.'' This advice was ignored.
  The Speaker never received approval from the Ethics Committee on his 
book contract, as he promised. Mr. Gingrich's wanton disregard of the 
Ethics Committee makes the case for an outside counsel to investigate 
the other charges pending against him. The Speaker will be unable to 
ignore the ruling of an outside counsel in the way [[Page H5628]] that 
he has ignored the Ethics Committee.

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