[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 9, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7468-H7469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRIES

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.
  The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state it.
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I note that the Rules of the House say that 
any document in any committee is available to any Member of this House 
upon proper presentation by that Member to this committee. Will that 
rule prevail with regard to the documents referred to?
  The SPEAKER. The documents currently do not belong to any committee 
and are in possession of the House under armed guard. The House will 
consider a rule to deal with the documents. At that time, the gentleman 
may have an ample opportunity, to debate it.
  The majority is working very closely with the minority leader and the 
ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary and with the 
Members on both sides of the Committee on Rules to develop a rule which 
may come to the Committee on Rules. This hopefully will be a clearly 
bipartisan rule with a broad base of support which will handle a 
complex group of documents in a way that will both meet the public 
interest and the needs of the Members.
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I have a further parliamentary inquiry. As 
I note that the Rules of the House require that any document in the 
possession of any committee or in the possession of the House is 
available to any Member of this House upon demand; is that correct?
  The SPEAKER. Only with respect to committee files. Documents 
initially in the possession of the whole House can be handled in a 
different manner. And until the Committee on Rules and the House has 
determined where these documents will go and in what manner they will 
be handled, they will be maintained under armed guard in a room that 
the Sergeant at Arms is responsible for.

[[Page H7469]]

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, again, I have a further parliamentary 
inquiry. The documents are in the custody of the Speaker, are they not?
  The SPEAKER. At the direction of the Chair, the documents are in the 
custody of the Sergeant at Arms on behalf of the House. No Member of 
the House, neither the Speaker nor the minority leader nor any other 
Member nor any staff member, has access to these documents.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary 
inquiry.
  The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state it.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, how would a Member of the 
House who seeks to see these documents go about seeing them?
  The SPEAKER. The most efficient way could be for the gentleman from 
Mississippi to meet with either the minority leader or the ranking 
minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary and explain how he 
wishes them to be handled, so that as the rule is written tonight or 
tomorrow morning it is written in a manner that fits the gentleman's 
interest. That is the way for an individual Member to be effective on 
this topic. On the Republican side, Members could meet with the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) or the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Solomon).
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I have a further 
parliamentary inquiry. If it is the understanding of a Member that the 
people that the Speaker has mentioned would not be in favor of 
releasing the report, what recourse then would a Member, or hopefully a 
majority of Members, have in seeking these documents?
  The SPEAKER. The Chair will not speculate on relations inside the 
gentleman's party. The gentleman will have to discern that for himself. 
The Chair will not speculate on how that might work out. The gentleman 
would also, as a Member, have a right to vote against a proposed rule.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, is that the sole recourse?
  The SPEAKER. The Chair will not speculate, but the gentleman may want 
to sit down with the Parliamentarian and determine what other recourse 
he might have.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Solomon), chairman of the Committee on Rules.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the honorable gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Dingell) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) 
that there are ongoing meetings right this minute between the staffs of 
the Committee on the Judiciary on both sides of the aisle and the 
Committee on Rules on both sides of the aisle to make a determination 
of how to expedite this matter. And I would suggest to any and all 
Members that they go to their respective party leaders, because that 
input is being put in right now and sometime this evening we will come 
to some kind of bipartisan decision and bring that rule to the floor 
tomorrow.

                          ____________________