[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         ETHICS COMMITTEE HANDLING OF GINGRICH CASE A TRAVESTY

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                        HON. PATRICIA SCHROEDER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 10, 1996

  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker 7 years ago, we had an Ethics Committee 
investigation against Speaker Jim Wright. The committee had requested 
an outside counsel, Richard Phelan, to prepare a report on the Wright 
case.
  Here is what Congressman Newt Gingrich said on ``Meet the Press'' 
about releasing Mr. Phelan's report to the public:

       Now, that report is secret; I don't know of anybody other 
     than the committee members and Mr. Phelan who know what's in 
     it--except Mr. Wright's lawyer. And I think that report and 
     the back-up documents have to be published.
       I cannot imagine going to the country * * * tell them we've 
     got a $1.6 million report--and, by the way, there's nothing 
     in it, but you can't see it.
       Clearly, that report is going to have to be published.
       Well, I think the first key test is whether or not the 
     Phelan report is published, and the background documents and 
     the appropriate interviews of 65 witnesses under oath are 
     published.
       I think it's vital that we establish as a Congress our 
     commitment to publish that report and to release those 
     documents so the country can judge whether or not the man 
     second in line to be president--the speaker of the House--
     should be in that position.

  Congressman Gingrich also demanded that Mr. Phelan be given the 
independence necessary to do a thorough and complete job. He wrote to 
the Ethics Committee chairman insisting that Mr. Phelan have full 
authority to investigate the Wright case; that he be allowed to make 
public statements and reports; and that a copy of his contract with the 
committee be made public.
  Today, the tables are turned. Speaker Gingrich is under 
investigation, but it is an investigation cloaked in secrecy. It is an 
investigation undermined by the committee's own members.
  In this Monday's rollcall, several former special and committee 
counsels expressed grave reservations about how the current Ethics 
Committee is handling the Gingrich case.
  Worse, in yesterday's Manchester, CT, Journal Inquirer, the chairman 
of the very Ethics Committee subcommittee charged with conducting the 
investigation trashes the very process he is heading up. Congressman 
Porter Goss is quoted as saying:

       It's a foolish process that needs to be changed. I'm not 
     going to defend the process.

  Congressman Goss goes on to trivialize the report prepared by special 
counsel James Cole and criticize the press for running stories about 
the report.
  Congressman Goss should resign from the Ethics Committee. He is 
sabotaging the very process he is supposed to be leading. If he wants 
to be Speaker Gingrich's defense counsel fine--it's a free country--but 
get off the Ethics Committee.
  Worse, he is discussing a report he claims can't be discussed. 
Members of Congress can't read the report. The taxpayers--who paid the 
half million dollars it cost to prepare it--can't read the report. We 
have no way of knowing what's in it.
  Yet Congressman Goss feels free to discuss, characterize, and 
minimize the report while at the same time saying that under committee 
rules it is secret and can't be talked about.
  This reminds me of the old TV quiz show, ``I've Got a Secret.'' The 
Ethics Committee has a secret--a half-million-dollar investigation of 
Speaker Newt Gingrich that it doesn't want the public to see.
  My advice to the committee is to trust the good judgment of the 
American public. Release the report and let the chips fall where they 
may.

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