[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 199 (Thursday, December 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H14877-H14878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ETHICS COMMITTEE'S REFORM STALLED

  (Mr. OBEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct 
has unanimously voted to close the loophole on outside income 
limitations for Members of Congress from book royalties. Now the 
Speaker and the majority leader and the Committee on Rules chair all 
inform us that there will be a stall in that reform. I think that is a 
very sad day.
  I wrote the code of ethics under which 18 Members of this House have 

[[Page H14878]]
  been disciplined, and at that time, at the request of people of the 
highest integrity, we made an exception for book royalties because we 
wanted to make room for legitimate exchange of ideas, and we had in 
mind books by people such as Mo Udall, Dick Bolling, and John Anderson. 
But we never dreamed that that exception would be used by any Member to 
cash in big on his public fame.
  The Speaker's book deal has done such incredible damage to the public 
confidence in this House by making it appear that all of us are money 
grubbers, that that rule must be changed to eliminate it, and it must 
be changed now.

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