[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7973-7974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WEAKENED ETHICS RULES

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, earlier this year, the House Republican 
leadership purged the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of 
three of the Republican Members. Serving on this committee, where one 
is charged with investigating and possibly reprimanding one's own 
colleagues is not an easy assignment, but it is a very important one.
  The gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), the chairman, and the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and the gentleman from Missouri 
(Mr. Hulshof) wanted to continue to serve on the committee, a committee 
unlike most in this Chamber, that worked in a bipartisan fashion. Could 
that have been their downfall?

[[Page 7974]]

  After losing his chairmanship, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. 
Hefley) told The Washington Post, and I am quoting, ``There's a bad 
perception out there that there was a purge in the committee and that 
people were put in that would protect our side of the aisle better than 
I did.''

                              {time}  1030

  He continues, ``No one should be there to protect anybody; they 
should be there to protect the integrity of the institution.''
  Madam Speaker, I could not have said it better myself. The integrity 
of the House is much more important than any one Member. It is time the 
Republican leadership learns that lesson.

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