[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4432-H4433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONCERNS ABOUT THE ETHICS PROCESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. Bass] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue that has 
always been a priority of mine since I first served in the New 
Hampshire legislature back in 1982, and that issue is ethics. One of my 
first responsibilities back then was to serve on a task force to make 
recommendations on the establishment of a permanent ethics committee 
and guidelines for Members of the New Hampshire legislature and the 
State senate, by the way, who are only paid $100 a year.
  As a result of this and subsequent efforts, I was pleased as a New 
Hampshire State Senator to author the law that established a permanent 
legislative ethics committee, and I served as chairman for 2 years. By 
the way, part of this process involved crafting the law. We studied 
other models in other States, including the model here in Washington 
that is used for Congress.
  Because of the work I was able to do with Democrats and Republicans 
in New Hampshire, including now Governor Steve Merrill, many of the 
procedures that we used in New Hampshire are based on ethics standards 
rules that we follow here in Congress. We felt that it was critical 
that our ethics committee always work on a bipartisan basis and that 
the actions of its Members be totally above reproach. We adopted 
language which would require that any Member of our ethics committee 
recuse himself or herself from any deliberation if there was any 
possibility of a conflict of interest.
  Last week I was surprised to read in the April 30, 1996 edition of 
the Washington Times an article about a possible conflict of interest 
involving the ranking minority member of the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the article from the Washington Times be included along with my 
statement in the Record.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New Hampshire?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, the article reveals that the same individual 
who drafted several complaints filed against the Speaker also helped 
raise tens of thousands of dollars for the campaign of the ranking 
minority member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The 
article also revealed that the political consulting firm header by the 
individual in question, Mr. Steven J. Jost, also received over $14,000 
in payments from the ranking minority member's campaign committee.
  Mr. Speaker, in no way am I implying that the distinguished ranking 
minority member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has 
acted in an unethical fashion, but in the same manner that questions 
were raised by the minority whip concerning Republican Members of the 
committee and alleged conflicts of interest, similar questions should 
also be raised regarding any connection between the ranking minority 
member of the committee and the individual who helped raise money for 
him and also drafted many of the complaints filed against the Speaker.
  It is vital, Mr. Speaker, that the ethics process in Congress remain 
fair and above reproach, and that we retain the confidence of the 
American people for this important process. I hope that we will receive 
in the coming days a full and complete explanation of the ranking 
minority member's association with this fundraiser and this 
fundraiser's dealings with the ethics committee regarding filings made 
against the Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the following article for the Record.

               [From the Washington Times, Apr. 30, 1996]

              Gingrich Critic Aided Ethics-Panel Democrat

                         (By George Archibald)

       The top Democrat on the House ethics committee received 
     tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions 
     raised by a firm whose senior partner spearheaded ethics 
     complaints against House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
       Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, who says he knew 
     nothing of the fund raising and therefore didn't violate 
     committee conflict-of-interest rules raised more than $36,000 
     from political action committees at two receptions organized 
     last year by Fraioli/Jost, a PAC money-raiser for 
     congressional Democrats.
       At the same time, Mr. McDermott was the point man pushing 
     for the House ethics committee to appoint an outside counsel 
     to investigate complaints against Mr. Gingrich.
       The complaints were researched and legally drafted under 
     the direction of Steven J. Jost of Fraioli/Jost.
       Mr. Jost was the chief fundraiser for Ben Jones, the 
     speaker's 1994 Democratic opponent, who launched the anti-
     Gingrich ethics complaints formally filed by House Minority 
     Whip David E. Bonior of Michigan.
       The complaints accused Mr. Gingrich of improperly 
     commingling funds and activities of GOPAC, which helped 
     achieve the GOP takeover of Congress, and a nationally 
     televised political science course the speaker taught from a 
     college in his home state, Georgia.
       ``We're stringing up the electric chair here, but we didn't 
     make him guilty; he made himself guilty,'' Mr. Jost told the 
     Wall Street Journal about Mr. Gingrich last year after the 
     complaints were filed.
       Documents purported to show ties between the college course 
     and GOPAC were obtained by Mr. Jost in Georgia during Mr. 
     Jones' 1994 campaign. ``Mr. Jost decided they would be useful 
     as a campaign weapon,'' the Journal reported. ``So he hired a 
     Democratic lawyer, Bob Bauer, to fashion them into an ethics 
     complaint for $4,500.''
       Mr. Bauer represents House Minority Leader Richard A. 
     Gephardt of Missouri, another Fraioli/Jost client.
       The Landmark Legal Foundation appraised the House Ethics 
     Committee last year of ties between Mr. Jost and Democratic 
     House leaders in the anti-Gingrich campaign. The panel, 
     formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official 
     Conduct, refused to look into the matter.
       ``Mr. McDermott had a duty to step aside when any complaint 
     with Mr. Jost's fingerprints on it came before the ethics 
     committee,'' said Mark R. Levin, Landmark's director of legal 
     policy.
       ``Members of the ethics committee are supposed to consider 
     all ethics complaints with a nonpartisan, unjaundiced eye. 
     The record would appear to show that Mr. McDermott and Mr. 
     Jost are joined at the hip,'' Mr. Levin said. ``We are 
     reviewing this information and seriously considering filing a 
     formal complaint.''
       Mr. McDermott yesterday denied any conflict with committee 
     rules requiring impartiality and lack of bias in the Gingrich 
     case.
       He also denied knowledge of filings by his political 
     committee, Friends of Jim McDermott, listing payments of 
     $14,160.61 to Fraioli/Jost for last year's PAC fundraising 
     activities.
       ``I don't know who did the fund raising,'' Mr. McDermott 
     told The Washington Times in an interview just off the House 
     floor. He then walked back onto the floor, where reporters 
     are barred, to avoid further questions about campaign 
     committee filings by Charles M. Williams, his $106,044-a-year 
     chief congressional aide.
       Mr. Williams, who runs Mr. McDermott's Capitol office, 
     serves as treasurer of Friends of Jim McDermott. Mr. Williams 
     did not respond to inquiries yesterday.
       Reports he filed for the campaign committee in December and 
     February list contributions totaling $36,000 to Mr. McDermott 
     from 52 PACs, each of which gave $500 or $1,000 at Capitol 
     Hill fundraising receptions organized by Fraioli/Jost on 
     April 5 and July 15, 1995.
       Mr. Jost, who left partner Michael Fraioli in June to start 
     his own fund-raising company, said Mr. McDermott ``first 
     approached us'' to do his fund raising in the 1993-94 
     election cycle. ``As I recall, one of the other members of 
     Congress referred us to him,'' Mr. Jost said.
       Mr. Jost said his income from Fraioli/Jost, even after Mr. 
     Jones ceased being a client of the firm, enabled him to spend 
     time advancing the anti-Gingrich ethics campaign. ``I have 
     never been compensated for any work by anybody on any of the 
     Gingrich stuff, except for news organizations that have 
     reimbursed me for photocopying expenses.'' he said
       Mr. Jost said he saw no conflict in Mr. McDermott's 
     reliance on Fraioli/Jost for fund raising are his own work in 
     the Gingrich camp while Mr. McDermott was sitting in judgment 
     of the speaker.
       ``It sounds like the worst thing you could accuse me or Jim 
     McDermott of is being Democrat,'' Mr. Jost said. He said 
     committee Republicans Porter J. Gross of Florida, Jim Bunning 
     of Kentucky and Nancy L. Johnson of Connecticut, the panel's 
     chairman had greater conflicts.
       ``Your're alleging . . . a conflict that is far less direct 
     than, for instance, Mr. Goss' giving $5,000 to GOPAC at the 
     time the ethics

[[Page H4433]]

     complaint is before his committee, or that Mr. Bunning and 
     Mrs. Johnson participated in GOPAC activities,'' Mr. Jost 
     said.

                          ____________________