[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 199 (Thursday, December 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    REPUBLICANS FILLING THEIR CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS WITH MORE GOODIES

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, today's paper reports that the Republican 
leadership has again dropped the ball in terms of trying to limit 
Members of Congress' outside income. We know this past year there have 
been great scandals about the book deal with the Speaker, and in the 
past, this problem is nothing new, because it occurred with past 
Speakers and with other Members of the House and Senate. But now, after 
the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and the embarrassment 
that this body has gone through this past year, the report is that the 
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct that has passed a proposal 
to limit outside earned income from book deals is going to be rejected. 
It is going to be put off so that the leadership, the Republican 
leadership in this House and across this country, can continue to fill 
their Christmas stockings with more goodies, not just this year in 
December, but throughout the next year. Happy New Year to the book 
deals--business as usual.
  It is time to properly limit the outside earned income and the book 
deals and get back to the work we were elected to do, not writing 
political fiction about our glory days in the 104th Congress.
  The 104th Congress should be about--delivering on a balanced budget 
that is both balanced fiscally and balanced fairly for the people of 
this country we represent, not to take away from the Medicare 
recipients and the Medicaid recipients and the less fortunate to 
provide and give tax breaks to our rich friends. Congress ought to get 
on with the task that we are elected to do to finish up the work that 
is 2 and 3 months past due, and get home so we can be with our families 
and friends and serve our constituents, not make bad history for 
political trash novels--with fat incomes for the congressional sponsors 
holiday stocking and a lump of coal for the taxpayers.

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