[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H11053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CAN THE PEOPLE TRUST THIS CONGRESS?

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, in these final days of the 104th Congress, 
the American people need to remember what this Congress has been all 
about.
  Time and again Members of Congress who have tried to speak out on 
issues of concern to the American people in fact have been silenced. We 
have seen it today when Members of Congress attempted to discuss the 
very serious charges of Federal tax fraud documented in an independent 
counsel's report which the Ethics Committee refuses to release to the 
public.
  A year ago, Republican zeal----


                             point of order

  Mr. CHRYSLER. Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman will suspend. The gentleman 
will state his point of order.
  Mr. CHRYSLER. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman is violating House rules 
by referring to matters before the Ethics Committee which are 
specifically forbidden by House rules.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will sustain the point of order, 
and asks the gentlewoman to proceed in order.
  Ms. DeLAURO. A year ago, Republican zeal to silence debate in the 
people's House resulted in the arrest of senior citizens who came to 
speak out against Republican plans to cut $270 billion from Medicare to 
pay for a $245 billion tax cut for the privileged few. And with the 
Medicare bill still on the chopping block because the Dole plan would 
require even deeper cuts in Medicare than the $270 billion in Medicare 
cuts proposed last year, the American people should ask themselves if 
they can trust this Republican Congress when it is so afraid of the 
truth, whether it be on Medicare or whether it be releasing the ethics 
report from the committee.

                          ____________________