[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 120 (Thursday, September 5, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10092-H10093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SPECIAL COUNSEL'S REPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I came to the floor and I was going to 
talk about Shannon Lucid. I want to tell you, I really admire this 
woman astronaut. We put her up in space and we seem to forget to bring 
her back. This poor soul has been trapped up in space for a very long 
time. Now it appears that the hurricane is delaying picking her up 
again.
  I think that she has probably got the best sense of humor in the 
world. She said it is like being trapped in a very, very small camper 
with all your children on rainy days and you can never get out. So I 
hope we bring her back very soon, and when we bring her back we give 
her some kind of an award for incredible patience. She is showing us 
what revolutionary patience can really be all about.
  I must say, I want to switch and talk about what the gentleman from 
Missouri was talking about, because I thought he brought up some very 
interesting points. The reason that this body would spend that kind of 
money for a special counsel is because of the trusteeship that we all 
hold. We are all here because taxpayers have sent us here and we are 
supposed to follow the law. This is a government of laws and not of 
men. That is what makes it so unique.
  In other countries, if you are an elected official, very often you 
are considered above the law. But not here. So when the Ethics 
Committee looked at some of these charges, they thought they were 
serious enough to hire a special counsel.

[[Page H10093]]

  What I heard the gentleman from Missouri saying is that now his 
report has been filed. It is over 100 pages. No one has seen it. We 
have not heard anything about it. I did read in the paper this morning 
a very troubling article that maybe the committee will not deal with 
this until after the election.

                              {time}  1545

  So I do not know what they are going to do with it, put it on ice, 
shred it, hope the hurricane hits it and blows it away. I mean what is 
the point? Why can Members not see what this report is? Why cannot 
taxpayers, why cannot the public or why does not the committee deal 
with it? And I think that is what he was trying to ask.
  I know I was very surprised because I cannot figure out what is going 
on here. I thought we were going to have votes today until 7 or 8 
o'clock. All gone. There are supposed to be votes tomorrow; tomorrow is 
gone. Monday is gone. Tuesday is gone. I do not know if we are ever 
going to vote again.
  Now, hey. I am packing and getting ready to go. These are gifts to 
me. That is terrific. But what are we doing and what are we ducking and 
what are we running from and how come they keep saying we are going to 
have votes, and then they change it, and then we find out there is all 
this unfinished business that no one else can see, even though we all 
got to help pay for it, and that is the very serious business about 
does this body have the gravatus to deal with our own and to deal with 
reports that this body paid for to be done? I think that the average 
American will be very upset if we say:

  ``Oh, no, we are not going to deal with that until after the 
election.''
  Why would we not deal with that until after the election? I cannot 
understand why we would even consider not dealing with that until after 
the election. This is very important. When you are on a 2-year term you 
should really finish the business of that term in that 2 years, because 
people are going to get to decide whether or not they want to renew our 
contract come November 5 for people who are running again.
  So if it is true that the committee is really thinking about not 
doing anything about this until after the election, I think this body 
should all be aware of that, and we ought to put people on record as to 
whether or not they agree with that decision because I do not think the 
American people would agree with that decision, and I think it is a 
real violation of our trusteeship.
  I have always said government is not a fungus, it can thrive in 
sunshine, and I think they expect us all to be able to explain 
ourselves. If people do not want to disclose, they do not have to run 
for office. But we do expect people who run for office to play by these 
rules and put them out there.
  So I thought the gentleman from Missouri had some very serious 
questions, and while I had a very funny 5 minutes done about sending 
Shannon into space and I hope we come get her, she has been up there 
before Easter, I am now beginning to think maybe the next thing is we 
are going to send this report into space, or it may as well be in space 
because we do not seem to be able to get ahold of it and see what is 
happening, and we do not seem to have any business to do, so there is 
no reason to come here.
  So as I leave this body, I hope every Member thinks about that and 
says the public will be very angry if we do not finish this serious 
ethnics charge that has come in front of the Speaker.

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