[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 149 (Thursday, October 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9771-H9773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE--DISMISSAL OF CONTEST IN 46TH DISTRICT OF 
             CALIFORNIA UPON EXPIRATION OF OCTOBER 31, 1997

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of the privileges of 
the House, and I offer a resolution (H. Res. 290) pursuant to clause 2 
of rule IX.

[[Page H9772]]

  The SPEAKER (Mr. Hefley). The Clerk will report the resolution.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                          House Resolution 290

       Whereas Loretta Sanchez was issued a certificate of 
     election as the duly elected Member of Congress from the 46th 
     District of California by the Secretary of State of 
     California and was seated by the U.S. House of 
     Representatives on January 7, 1997; and
       Whereas A Notice of Contest of Election was filed with the 
     Clerk of the House by Mr. Robert Dornan on December 26, 1996; 
     and
       Whereas the allegations made by Mr. Robert Dornan have been 
     found to be largely without merit, including his charges of 
     improper voting from a business, rather than a residential 
     address; underage voting; double voting; and charges of 
     unusually large numbers of individuals voting from the same 
     address. It was found that those accused of voting from the 
     same address included a Marines Barracks and the domicile of 
     nuns; that business addresses were legal residences for the 
     individuals, including the zoo keeper of the Santa Ana Zoo; 
     that duplicate voting was by different individuals; and that 
     those accused of underage voting were of age; and
       Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has issued 
     unprecedented subpoenas to the Immigration and Naturalization 
     Service to compare their records with Orange County voter 
     registration records, the first time in any election in the 
     history of the United States that the INS has been asked by 
     Congress to verify the citizenship of voters; and
       Whereas the privacy rights of United States citizens have 
     been violated by the Committee's improper use of those INS 
     records;
       Whereas the INS itself has questioned the validity and 
     accuracy of the Committee's use of INS documents;
       Whereas the INS has complied with the Committee's request 
     and, at the Committee's request, has been doing a manual 
     check of its paper files and providing worksheets containing 
     supplemental information on that manual check to the 
     Committee on House Oversight for over five months; and
       Whereas the Committee on House Oversight, subpoenaed the 
     records seized by the District Attorney of Orange County on 
     February 13, 1997 and has received and reviewed all records 
     pertaining to registration efforts of that group; and
       Whereas some Members of the House Oversight Committee are 
     now seeking a duplicate and dilatory review of materials 
     already in the Committee's possession by the Secretary of 
     State of California; and
       Whereas the Task Force on the Contested Election in the 
     46th District of California and the Committee have been 
     reviewing these materials and have all the information they 
     need regarding who voted in the 46th District and all the 
     information they need to make a judgment concerning those 
     votes; and
       Whereas the Committee on House Oversight has after over 
     nine months of review and investigation failed to produce or 
     present any credible evidence sufficient to change the 
     outcome of the election of Congresswoman Sanchez and is now, 
     in place of producing such credible evidence, pursuing never 
     ending and unsubstantiated areas of review; and
       Whereas, Contestant Robert Dornan has after nearly one year 
     not shown or provided any credible evidence sufficient to 
     demonstrate that the outcome of the election is other than 
     Congresswoman Sanchez's election to the Congress; and
       Whereas, the Committee on House Oversight should complete 
     its review of this matter and bring this contest to an end 
     and now therefore be it:
       Resolved, That unless the Committee on House Oversight has 
     sooner reported a recommendation for its final disposition, 
     the contest in the 46th District of California is dismissed 
     upon the expiration of October 31, 1997.

                              {time}  1730

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hefley). The resolution presents a 
question of the privileges of the House.


                 Motion to Table Offered by Mr. Solomon

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table 
offered by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon].
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.


                             Recorded Vote

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
  A recorded vote was ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 212, 
noes 198, answered ``present'' 3, not voting 19, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 558]

                               AYES--212

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brady
     Bryant
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Coble
     Collins
     Combest
     Cook
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cunningham
     Davis (VA)
     Deal
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Foley
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Granger
     Greenwood
     Gutknecht
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Herger
     Hill
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Hulshof
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Jenkins
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King (NY)
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Moran (KS)
     Morella
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Northup
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oxley
     Packard
     Pappas
     Parker
     Paul
     Paxon
     Pease
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Redmond
     Regula
     Riggs
     Riley
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roukema
     Royce
     Ryun
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer, Dan
     Schaffer, Bob
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (OR)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith, Linda
     Snowbarger
     Solomon
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stump
     Sununu
     Talent
     Tauzin
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Thune
     Tiahrt
     Traficant
     Upton
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (FL)

                               NOES--198

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Berry
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boswell
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Cardin
     Carson
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Etheridge
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Filner
     Flake
     Forbes
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Goode
     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Holden
     Hooley
     Hoyer
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson (WI)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind (WI)
     Klink
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     Lampson
     Lantos
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McIntyre
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Menendez
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moran (VA)
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Poshard
     Price (NC)
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Reyes
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Rothman
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sherman
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith, Adam
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson
     Thurman
     Tierney
     Torres
     Towns
     Turner
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Yates

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--3

     Coburn
     Sanchez
     Souder

                             NOT VOTING--19

     Barr
     Cubin
     DeLay
     Doolittle
     Foglietta
     Gekas
     Gonzalez
     Houghton
     Kleczka
     Leach
     Manton
     McHale
     Meek
     Metcalf
     Payne
     Schiff
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Young (AK)

                              {time}  1753

  Mr. Barcia and Ms. Carson changed their vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
  So the motion to table was agreed to.

[[Page H9773]]

  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________