[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 125 (Thursday, September 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10351-H10352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MAKING CLOUDS GO AWAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. (Mr. Cooley of Oregon). Under a previous 
order of theHouse, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, Members of theHouse, this is a sad day for 
me as a Member of this body having served here 20 years. You know, last 
year when the ethics complaints were being filed against the Speaker, I 
characterized what is happening to this House as there was a great 
cloud over this House and we needed to remove that cloud. That cloud 
has not been removed; in fact, it has gotten darker. It has done more 
to harm the image of the U.S. House of Representatives than any actions 
that have been taken on legislation.
  Even though their Contract With America would have cut Medicare, 
would have cut environmental protection, would have cut education, all 
to give tax cuts for the wealthy; that is bad enough. But what is going 
on today and has been going on with the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct and its coverup of what the Speaker of theHouse has 
done is shameful beyond any comprehension.
  It is a sad day when Members of theHouse cannot even get a copy of 
the report that the special counsel has filed with the Committee on 
Standards of Official Conduct on just one of several, seven, complaints 
that have been filed against the Speaker. Only on one. They have not 
done anything on the others.
  What is the gentlewoman from Connecticut doing? Well, she met with 
the floor leader the other day. She has had press conferences in 
Connecticut. But she will not tell us anything. In fact they met just 
yesterday. Why did they not release the report?
  I am sure not one of the five Republican Members of that Committee on 
Standards of Official Conduct will ever vote to release that report. 
All they have to do is vote to release it and it comes out. You and the 
public, Members of theHouse, the media, everybody, will know what is in 
that report. They do not want you and I or anybody else to know what is 
in that report.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. VOLKMER. Yes, and by the way, for the public's edification, no 
Democratic member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct can 
tell us what is in that report. The Committee on Standards of Official 
Conduct, as a body, has to release it. So we cannot find out from 
them--
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. If the gentleman will yield, one of the things that 
troubled me was I believe they are now trying to say, ``Oh, well, this 
is not a report.''
  Now I want to know what we spent $500,000 for, for a hundred pages of 
paper, and they think they can escape all the rules of this House by 
calling it something other than a report. It is a very--what was this? 
Just kind of a gift to someone to go put some papers together? I mean 
that does not make any sense to me at all.
  Mr. VOLKMER. I say it is a huge waste of taxpayer's money to spend 
$500,000 to have a very good attorney to gather up all this evidence 
and give it to the committee, which the committee already had, and if 
it is not a report, then I do not know what it is, but it is their way 
of getting out of releasing it.
  That is all it amounts to.
  Ms. DeLAURO. If the gentleman will yield? If I might, there is 
precedent here for what we are talking about. All you have to do is to 
go back a few years, and I just will read you two or three quotes, and 
I will let you guess who said them.
  Now that report is secret. I do not know what is in it. I do not know 
of anybody other than the committee

[[Page H10352]]

members and Mr. Phalen who know what is in it, except Mr. Wright's 
lawyer, and I think that that report and the backup documents have to 
be published.
  That was the then-Congressman Newt Gingrich.
  I cannot imagine going to the country, tell them we have got a $1.6 
million report, and by the way there is nothing in it, but you cannot 
see it.
  This is exactly what we are talking about.
  Mr. VOLKMER. That is Newt Gingrich all over again.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Clearly that report is going to have to be published. 
That is right. The now-Speaker was right when he spoke in 1989. That 
report, it is a report by any other name is a report, ought to be 
published and the Members of this House ought to know what is in it. 
More importantly, the American public ought to know what is in it.
  Mr. VOLKMER. That is correct. Good or bad, whatever. The public is 
entitled to know.
  Mr. KLINK. If the gentleman will yield, our friend and colleague, the 
gentleman from Florida, Porter Goss, was on the floor a few moments 
ago, and he talked about the fact that the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct's investigation in the system was broken, and I would 
suggest to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, let us fix it 
in a bipartisan manner. Let us not make a difference in this House of 
Representatives whether the Speaker is a Democrat or a Republican, he 
would be treated differently. I think we need to send some sunshine on 
this House to make those shadows and those clouds go away.

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