[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1878]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PENSION-KILLING BILL 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 the House will consider legislation to 
kill the pensions of Members of Congress convicted of a felony.
  Amazingly, lawmakers who broke the law collect taxpayer-funded 
pensions after conviction. Rostenkowski collects after mail fraud; 
Traficant collects after corruption; Cunningham collects after bribery; 
and Ney collects after conspiracy.
  Today's bill is a step forward, but blocks pensions for only four 
felonies: bribery, being a foreign agent, conspiracy to defraud, and 
perjury. The key story is what is missing.
  Our House leadership presented a bill, but banned an amendment that 
would add 17 public corruption felonies to the list. Under today's 
unamended bill, Congressmen would still get a pension if convicted of 
income tax invasion, wire fraud, intimidation to secure contributions, 
and racketeering. Speaker Pelosi voted for these tougher reforms in 
1996, but appears to have changed her mind.
  Mr. Speaker, I will support the bill before the House because it is 
the result of reform-minded Members like me who brought it to the 
floor, but it does fall 17 felonies short of the reforms needed to 
fully clean up this House.

                          ____________________