[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 2 (Thursday, January 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H79-H80]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PUT IN THE POSITION OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Miller] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week this 
Congress and the Nation watched as the Republican leadership and the 
Speaker of this House bargained with, negotiated with, and twisted the 
arms of the members of the Republican caucus to support the Speaker to 
be reelected as Speaker of this House for the 105th Congress. That was 
done because the effort was made to be sure that we would vote on the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives before the Ethics Committee had 
completed its work.
  That was unconscionable, Mr. Speaker, that we would in fact do that. 
But now this morning we learn that the Ethics Committee is continuing 
in that path, because we see now that the schedule of the Ethics 
Committee that has been set forth by the chairperson of that committee 
requires that the House will vote on whatever recommended punishment 
the committee will make to the House, that the House will vote on that 
prior to the issuance of the final report of the Ethics Committee.
  What does this mean? It means that both the Members of the House of 
Representatives and our constituents will be denied the access to the 
information necessary on which to make an informed judgment, very 
similar to the situation that those who supported the candidacy of 
Speaker Gingrich earlier this week were put in, in having to vote for 
him for Speaker before they knew whether or not he was ethically fit to 
be the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
  What is becoming very clear is that the continued orchestration of 
the Ethics Committee by the Republican leadership to try and dampen the 
flow of information to the Members of Congress and to the members of 
the public continues. This committee should be allowed to function 
independently, and this committee should be allowed to function without 
a debt to the leadership of this House.
  We have hired a special counsel to seek that independence. That 
special counsel should be allowed to do his work. That special counsel 
should be allowed to present the evidence, and that special counsel 
should be allowed to write the final report of this committee prior to 
the Congress voting, voting on any recommended punishment brought forth 
by the committee.
  But it is also very clear that it is now the intent, it is now the 
intent of the Ethics Committee to keep that from happening. So once 
again, we are put in the position of Alice in Wonderland, where once 
again we will render a verdict first and later we will look at the 
facts and we will look at the evidence.
  I think it is very, very improper that the Members of the House of 
Representatives be put in this position by the Ethics Committee. I 
believe, as the House turned down the bipartisan recommendation of the 
ethics investigative subcommittee and of the special counsel in not 
allowing them additional time to prepare their work product, it was for 
the first time, I believe, in the history of the Congress where we 
turned down a recommendation of a special counsel, a person that is 
supposed to bring independence to this, on their recommendation that 
they needed additional time to complete their work product in a proper 
fashion for a presentation to the committee and to the Congress.
  So we now see a series of votes being forced upon the House of 
Representatives, the sole purpose of which is to deny access to 
information by the very people that will have to vote on the 
recommendations of the Ethics Committee. The Members of the House, on a 
bipartisan basis, should reject that notion. We should not go forward 
with a vote prior to the issuance of the final report of the special 
counsel.
  Then the Members can go home and say to their constituents, however 
they decided to vote, that they in fact had a full opportunity to 
examine the entire

[[Page H80]]

record and to take counsel with themselves and their sense of propriety 
about the actions and the ethics of the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, and then they cast their vote, rather than to be able 
to say to their constituents, well, I voted, and then I was able to 
read the report.
  There is nobody in America that believes that that is the way that we 
should conduct the public's business. The public's business should be 
conducted openly and it should be conducted in a forthright fashion. 
What we are witnessing over the past several days is an effort to shut 
down both the ability of the press, the ability of the public, and the 
ability of the Members of Congress to have access to that information 
to make an informed judgment on behalf of the Congress and on behalf of 
our constituents.

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