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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 310 Laid on Table in House (LTH)]

109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 310

           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 9, 2005

 Ms. Pelosi submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the 
                                 table

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
           Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

Whereas, in 1968, in furtherance of its constitutional authority and to promote 
        the highest ethical standards for Members of Congress, the House of 
        Representatives established the Committee on Standards of Official 
        Conduct;
Whereas the ethics procedures in effect during the 108th Congress, and in the 
        three preceding Congresses, were enacted in 1997 in a bipartisan manner 
        by an overwhelming vote of the House of Representatives upon the 
        bipartisan recommendation of the ten-member Ethics Reform Task Force, 
        which conducted a thorough and lengthy review of the entire ethics 
        process;
Whereas rule XI, clause 3(g) of the Rules of the House, first adopted in 1997 
        upon the recommendation of the task force, provides that the Committee 
        ``staff be assembled and retained as a professional non-partisan staff'' 
        and ``[a]ll staff members shall be appointed by an affirmative vote of 
        the majority of the Members of the Committee'';
Whereas rule XI states that each such staff person ``shall be professional and 
        demonstrably qualified for the position which he is hired'' and is 
        prohibited from engaging in ``any partisan political activity directly 
        affecting any congressional or presidential election'';
Whereas rule XI also provides that, ``in addition to any other staff provided by 
        law, rule or other authority'', the Chair and Ranking Minority Member 
        may each appoint, without a vote of the Committee, one person as a 
        shared staff member from his or her personal staff to perform service 
        for the Committee; and further provides such shared staff persons are 
        exempt from the provision requiring that ``the staff be assembled and 
        retained as a professional, nonpartisan staff'' and the provision 
        stating that ``no member of the staff shall engage in any partisan 
        political activity directly affecting any congressional or presidential 
        election'';
Whereas, from 1997 through 2004, the Staff Director/Chief Counsel and other 
        professional staff were appointed by an affirmative vote of a majority 
        of the members of the Committee, and the shared staff members exercised 
        no supervisory or other authority over the professional staff;
Whereas, in January of 2005, the Chairman of the Committee improperly and 
        unilaterally fired nonpartisan Committee staff;
Whereas the Chairman now proposes to designate his shared staff person as the 
        Committee Staff Director, clothed with supervisory authority, without 
        subjecting him to a vote of the Committee;
Whereas, because of the Chairman's proposal and with nearly half of the First 
        Session of the 109th Congress having expired, the Committee has been 
        unable to carry out its charge, set out in rule XI, to investigate 
        allegations of misconduct by Members and staff; and
Whereas the Committee's resulting inability to carry out its duties has 
        subjected the House to public ridicule and produced contempt for the 
        ethics process, thus bringing discredit to the House: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved,  That the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is 
hereby directed to proceed in accord with clause 3(g) of rule XI, to 
appoint, upon an affirmative vote of the majority of the Members of the 
Committee, a non-partisan professional staff.
                                 <all>
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