[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 194 (Thursday, December 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               BRING BIPARTISANSHIP BACK TO DELIBERATIONS

  (Mr. FAZIO of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I spent 8 years on the 
Committee on Ethics and part of that time during the investigation of 
former Speaker Wright. I have not chosen to speak on the issue of the 
Speaker and his involvement with that committee until this very moment.
  It seems to me that if we want to restore comity to the institution, 
to bring bipartisanship back to our deliberations, to take some of the 
poison out of the atmosphere, this issue needs to be resolved and fully 
resolved within the confines of that committee.
  I have tremendous respect for the individuals who serve all of the 
institution by putting time in, together, day after day, in that room. 
But until the issue is resolved, because of the nature of the 
speakership, by an outside counsel, we will not be able to get beyond 
this very difficult point that we seem to be hung up on today, and have 
been, frankly, for most of this year.
  I applaud the committee for finally taking the step of moving to 
instill more confidence in their deliberations. I do believe, however, 
that they must give the outside counsel the latitude to put to rest all 
the issues that have been raised. To do something other than that is to 
do different than we did when Speaker Wright was in the committee's 
deliberations, and would be, I think, unfortunately a truncated 
approach to getting this Congress beyond the cult of personality and 
back to work.

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