[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 11, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NEW YORK TIMES IS RIGHT: ETHICS COMMITTEE IS STALLING ON GINGRICH 
                               COMPLAINTS

  (Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, the New York Times has it 
about right. For the past 2 years we have witnessed a systematic 
coverup and stall by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in 
dealing with the ethics complaints regarding our Speaker, Newt 
Gingrich.
  They stalled for the consideration of the early complaints. They 
dismissed those complaints without interviewing without gathering 
evidence. They stalled in the gathering of evidence in the major 
complaints against Speaker Gingrich. And finally, reluctantly, they 
yielded to public pressure and appointed an outside counsel.
  But when they appointed the outside counsel, they restrained his 
ability to engage in a comprehensive investigation, and then they 
limited his mandate and what he could investigate. And then, finally, 
they did not allow him to draw conclusions from the investigation that 
he engaged in after spending $500,000.
  This House cannot go home to our constituents and not be able to 
report on the findings of the special counsel. The time has come for 
the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to stop the coverup, to 
stop the stall, and to give this House the information that it has and 
to let the special counsel do its work.

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