[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 26, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONSERVATIVES ATTACK SLAUGHTER AS SHE FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST MCINTOSH

                                 ______


                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 26, 1996

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, please insert the following article as 
additional documentation to my statement on March 22, 1996, regarding 
the need for the conduct of the Committee on Standards of Official 
Conduct to be beyond reproach.

               [From Gannett News Service, Dec. 5, 1995]

 Conservatives Attack Slaughter as She Files Complaint Against McIntosh

                           (By John Machacek)

       Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-NY., Tuesday filed an ethics 
     complaint against a Republican subcommittee chairman. But she 
     faces a counterattack from conservatives.
       The complaint to the House Ethics Committee alleges Rep. 
     David McIntosh, R-Ind., used fabricated documents and made 
     false statements on the House floor during his drive to limit 
     lobbying by federally funded nonprofit groups. Consumer 
     activist Ralph Nader has filed a similar complaint.
       Slaughter said McIntosh's actions were part of a ``campaign 
     of intimidation'' aimed at silencing her and the Alliance for 
     Justice, a civil rights and public interest lobbying group, 
     which has vigorously opposed proposed Republican budget cuts.
       ``These actions . . . are way over the line,'' Slaughter 
     said. ``It's McCarthyism all over again, and we have to stop 
     it.''
       Meanwhile, Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group 
     pushing McIntosh's legislation, is calling Slaughter the 
     ``original tax-dollars-for-lobbyists welfare queen'' in 
     postcards mailed to some of her constituents.
       The mailing says Slaughter received $61,000 in campaign 
     contributions last year ``from special-interest lobbies that 
     receive federal funds, which is used to lobby for more 
     money.''
       ``We wanted to draw attention to Louise Slaughter as the 
     best-paid lobbyist these special interests could buy,'' says 
     Audrey Mullen, executive director of Americans for Tax 
     Reform, a coalition of conservative activists, taxpayer 
     groups and businesses.
       McIntosh, chairman of a House Government Reform 
     subcommittee, brushed off the complaint, telling reporters 
     that Slaughter and the Alliance for Justice were simply 
     following the ``first rule of special-interest politics.''
       ``When your position on the merits of the issue is 
     embarrassing, you launch an attack on your opponents,'' he 
     said.
       McIntosh's aides told reporters in October--after the House 
     rejected Slaughter's request to debate her complaint against 
     him--that he was not worried about Slaughter's plans to take 
     her case to the Ethics Committee.
       After ``informal contacts'' between House Ethics Committee 
     and McIntosh staffers, McIntosh was told there ``wouldn't be 
     enough of a complaint'' for the committee to pursue, said 
     Chris Jones, McIntosh's press secretary.
       The Ethics Committee staff makes recommendations to 
     committee members.
       Slaughter said in an interview Tuesday that McIntosh's 
     ``intimidation tactics'' had continued through this week. She 
     said a McIntosh aide told her staff McIntosh could file a 
     counter-ethics complaint against her if a complaint was filed 
     against him.
       ``Louise Slaughter can't have it both ways,'' Jones said. 
     ``Her staff has been calling Indiana reporters since 
     September trying to stir up a story about an ethics 
     complaint. If the Ethics Committee is to be used to solve 
     political disputes, then everyone will be fair game.''
       McIntosh has apologized for the incident in which his staff 
     used the Alliance for Justice's letterhead on a report that 
     purported to list the amount of federal grants received by 
     the alliance's members. He said the document should have 
     contained a disclaimer. But he has recently told groups in 
     Indiana that he stands by the figures
       Slaughter and and Aron, Alliance for Justice president, say 
     some of the information in the document was inaccurate.