[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12914]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REPUBLICAN ABUSES OF POWER

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, how much does the majority leader 
underestimate the American people? For 6 months now the House Ethics 
Committee has been unable to meet because the Ethics Committee chairman 
refuses to abide by the committee's own rules. And now, this week, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) says it is the Democrats who are 
keeping the committee from meeting because, according to him, they want 
to delay his case before the Ethics Committee until an election year.
  If the majority leader really wants his case heard before the Ethics 
Committee, he should persuade the Ethics Committee chairman to abide by 
the ethics rules and appoint a nonpartisan staff director. The rules of 
the committee are clear that the staff be assembled and retained as a 
professional nonpartisan staff. If the gentleman from Washington 
(Chairman Hastings) is allowed to appoint his chief of staff, he would 
be breaking the committee rules by having a partisan staffer on the 
committee.
  Democrats want the Ethics Committee to play by the rules. Please play 
by the rules.

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