[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H10047-H10048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ANNOUNCEMENT OF INTENTION TO OFFER RESOLUTION RAISING QUESTION OF 
                        PRIVILEGES OF THE HOUSE

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2 of rule IX, I hereby 
give notice of my intention to offer a resolution which raises a 
question of the privileges of the House.
  The form of the resolution is as follows:

       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 the 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 
     largely found to be without merit, including his charges of 
     improper voting from a business, rather than a resident 
     address; underage voting; double voting; and charges of 
     unusually large number 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 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 
     the 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; and has 
     continued to question the validity and accuracy of the 
     Committee's use of INS documents; and
       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 which review can not produce a 
     different result than that which the Committee could produce, 
     upon using the same documents; 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 nine 
     months of review and investigation failed to present credible 
     evidence to change the outcome of the election

[[Page H10048]]

     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 credible evidence sufficient to 
     demonstrate that the outcome of the election is other than 
     Congresswoman Sanchez's election to the Congress; and
       Whereas, it is the contestant's proof of burden to do so;
       Whereas, the Committee on House Oversight should complete 
     its review of this matter and bring this contest to an end: 
     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 November 7, 1997.

                              {time}  1500

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Without objection, the Chair's 
previous ruling under rule IX will be entered in the Record at this 
point.
  There was no objection.
  The text of the Chair's prior statement is as follows:

       Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the floor by a 
     Member other than the Majority Leader or the Minority Leader 
     as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate 
     precedence only at a time designated by the Chair within two 
     legislative days after the resolution is properly noticed.
       Pending that designation, the form of the resolution 
     noticed by the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] will 
     appear in the Record at this point.
       The Chair will not at this point determine whether the 
     resolution constitutes a question of privilege. That 
     determination will be made at the time designated for 
     consideration of the resolution.

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