[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 153 (Thursday, September 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9599-H9600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PEOPLE WANT THE LETTER OF THE LAW
(Mrs. SCHROEDER asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute, to revise and extend her remarks, and to include therein
extraneous material.)
Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, as an American, I feel very good about
the fact that everybody is under the letter of the law. As a Member of
this body during Watergate, I was very saddened by the fact that the
Presidency was being attacked, but I also felt very good that we were
showing the world that no one is above the letter of the law in this
great and wonderful country, thanks to Thomas Jefferson and many of our
forefathers and the rules they put together.
Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I felt sick because I found an article in the
Hartford Courant in which the ethics charges against the Speaker were
being discussed by the chairwoman of the Ethics Committee who said, the
letter of the law is not compelling to me, that there is a lot of
flexibility in our rules, and I wanted to put together a process that
will make Members feel good.
I do not think people want that flexibility. I think they want the
letter of the law.
Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the article to which I
referred.
Johnson Defends Ethics Case Stance
(By John A. MacDonald)
Washington.--Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-6th District,
confirmed Tuesday that she signed a 1988 letter to the House
ethics committee urging if to conduct a ``full inquiry'' into
complaints against then Speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat.
The letter was a circulated by Rep. Newt Gingrich, who at
the time was a relatively unknown Republican from Georgia.
Now, he is speaker of the House and is the subject of
complaints under review by the ethics committee.
Johnson became the committee's chairwoman when Republicans
took control of the House in January.
In addition to the letter, Gingrich issued a press release
may 26, 1988, in which he said it was ``vital'' for the
committee to hire an outside counsel to pursue the complaints
against Wright throughly.
The letter and press release are significant because many
think they set a standard the committee has failed to meet in
its Gingrich investigation.
Asked why that was not happening, Johnson said, ``This is
Newt speaking, and you see some of our Democratic colleagues
agree with him. . . . In signing this original letter, that
didn't mean I agreed with him on all this stuff.''
Johnson's comments came during a wide-ranging meeting with
Connecticut reporters.
The committee is considering complaints relating to a book
deal Gingrich signed with media magnate Rupert Murdoch, the
financing and promotion of a college course Gingrich taught
in Georgia and whether the speaker allowed an outside
consultant to perform official House business.
Johnson also defended the committee's decision not to use
an investigative procedure set out in the House Ethics
Manual.
``The letter of the law is not compelling to me,'' she
said. ``I will work with our rules. Our rules have a certain
amount of flexibility. . . . My goal is to have a process
that the committee members feel good about.''
Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, the senior committee
Democrat, has objected to the course the committee is
following, complaining that the panel was not prepared to
question key witnesses who appeared in July. Tuesday, Johnson
complained that McDermott had not raised his concerns with
the committee before making them public.
McDermott did not respond to a request for comment.
As she has in the past, Johnson held out the possibility
that the committee will turn for help to an outside counsel,
as many House Democrats and several government watchdog
groups have requested. But she said the 10-member panel,
evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, had not
reached that point.
Responding to reports the panel was close to appointing an
outside counsel, Johnson said, ``It is absolutely true,
without doubt in my mind, that the committee has made no
decision.''
Johnson sought to portray the committee as struggling to
find the best way to achieve a consensus on how to complete
its inquiry. ``Jim's position is certainly legitimate,'' she
said, referring to McDermott.
But, she went on, ``Six-four decisions aren't healthy. They
don't get you anywhere, particularly 6-4 procedural
decisions. Six-four procedural decisions tend to set up 5-5
deadlocks.'' A 6-4 vote is the narrowest majority by which
the 10-member committee can approve an action.
The letter Johnson and 70 other House Republicans signed in
1988 has been circulated in recent days by groups seeking an
outside counsel with unlimited authority. It concluded: ``The
integrity of the House of Representatives and the trust of
the American people require a full inquiry [into the Wright
complaints].''
Johnson said Tuesday, ``I don't see that as contradictory
of what I'm doing . . . I have every intent that this will be
a full inquiry.''
She also said that naming an outside counsel could get in
the way of the committee making its own judgments.
[[Page H 9600]]
``We need original source information where it's practical
and where it's reasonable,'' she said. ``I think we're going
to do a better job than those who would have turned it over
to someone.''
Others have said that only an outside counsel could conduct
a complete, impartial investigation.
Johnson disagreed with those who say the committee has
established special rules for Gingrich, and she defended the
committee's action in setting aside the ethics manual in the
speaker's case.
``My job, as I perceive it, is not to fulfill some sort of
generic expectation,'' she said. ``My job is to provide just
consideration of the complaints that come before us.''
The ethics manual says that once the committee decides a
complaint meets certain criteria, it may begin a formal
inquiry. The panel then is to split into subcommittees--one
to investigate the complaints and the other to hear sworn
testimony and decide the validity of the complaints.
Instead, the committee has yet to vote to conduct a formal
investigation while the full panel has taken sworn testimony
from more than a dozen witnesses, including Gingrich and
Murdoch.
Johnson said the committee's 1992 investigation of members
who bounced checks on the now-defunct House Bank showed the
ethics manual process to be an ``utter and total disaster.''
McDermott served on the ethics sub, that recommended making
public the names of only 24 members who abused their banking
privileges.
But Johnson and three other committee Republicans objected
that all those who wrote bad checks should be named.
Eventually, Johnson's position prevailed. She said the bank
investigation unfairly harmed the reputations of many
members, adding, ``I don't want a result like that.''
Government watchdog groups that have recently joined the
call for an outside counsel with unlimited authority to
handle the Gingrich case include Common Cause, Public Citizen
and the Congressional Accountability Project, a Ralph Nader
organization.
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