[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1754]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      PENSION BILL REGARDING CONVICTED FORMER MEMBERS FALLS SHORT

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, today Congressman Ney was sentenced to 30 
months in jail after pleading guilty to two Federal felonies. 
Amazingly, under our law he will still collect a congressional pension 
funded by the U.S. taxpayer. In fact, other Members of Congress who 
pled guilty or were convicted of crimes collect. Congressman 
Rostenkowski collects. Congressman Traficant collects. Congressman 
Cunningham collects. All taxpayer-funded pensions.
  On Monday, we will take up a very limited bill to kill pensions for 
Members of Congress who commit only one of four felonies. The 
legislation we will consider misses 17 other public integrity felonies 
that the House already adopted with the support of Speaker Pelosi and 
Speaker Hastert in previous years. The legislation we consider on 
Monday has never been through a committee and the leadership will not 
allow any amendments to the legislation. There will be no vote 
permitted to add the other 17 public integrity felonies that should 
have been part of this needed reform. The legislation that we will 
consider on Monday will fall short of the potential that we had to 
reform this House.

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