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[Journal of the House of Representatives, 1995]
[Wednesday, October 25, 1995 (134), Para 134.11 Privileges of the House]
[Page 1594]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

para.134.11  privileges of the house

  Ms. SLAUGHTER rose to a question of the privileges of the House and 
submitted the following privileged resolution (H. Res. 244):

       Whereas, on September 28, 1995, the Subcommittee on 
     National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory 
     Affairs of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 
     held a hearing on political advocacy of Federal grantees;
       Whereas, the president of the Alliance for Justice, a 
     national association of public interest and civil rights 
     organizations testified at that hearing;
       Whereas, a document was placed upon the press table for 
     distribution at the hearing which contained the letterhead, 
     including the name, address, phone number, fax number, and E-
     mail address of the Alliance for Justice, and the names of 
     certain member organizations and the dollar amounts of 
     Federal grants they received;
       Whereas, in her opening statement at the hearing, the 
     president of the Alliance for Justice identified the document 
     as being forged and contained errors and requested an 
     explanation from the chairman of the subcommittee as to the 
     source of the document;
       Whereas, in response, the chairman acknowledged that the 
     document was created by the subcommittee staff;
       Whereas, House Information Resources, at the request of the 
     subcommittee staff, prepared the forged document;
       Whereas, the document was prepared using official funds;
       Whereas, the chairman of the subcommittee acknowledged in a 
     letter, dated September 28, 1995, to the president of the 
     Alliance for Justice that ``the graphics, unfortunately, 
     appeared to simulate the Alliance's letterhead'';
       Whereas, the September 29, 1995, issue of the National 
     Journal's CongressDaily reported that Representative 
     McIntosh's communications director said that ``the letterhead 
     was taken from a faxed document, scanned into their computer 
     system and altered''; and
       Whereas, questions continue to arise regarding the 
     responsibility for preparation of the forced document: the 
     chairman of the subcommittee stated during the hearing that 
     he had no prior knowledge of the document's preparation; the 
     chairman later stated that the subcommittee staff prepared 
     the document: and other published reports suggested that 
     Chairman McIntosh's personal office staff prepared the 
     document:
       Whereas, on September 27, 1995, the Speaker expressed 
     concern over the distribution of unattributed documents and 
     announced a policy requiring that materials disseminated on 
     the floor of the House must bear the name of the Member 
     authorizing their distribution;
       Whereas, Members and staff of the House have an obligation 
     to ensure the proper use of documents and other materials and 
     exhibits prepared for use at committee and subcommittee 
     hearings and which are made available to Members, the public 
     or the press, and to ensure that the source of such documents 
     or other materials is not misrepresented;
       Whereas, committees and subcommittees should not create 
     documents for use in their proceedings that may give the 
     impression that such documents were created by other persons 
     or organizations, as occurred at the September 28, 1995, 
     hearing of the Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, 
     Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs;
       Whereas, the dissemination of a forged document distorts 
     the public record and affects the ability of the House of 
     Representatives, its committees, and Members to perform their 
     legislative functions, and constitutes a violation of the 
     integrity of committee proceedings which form a core of the 
     legislative process: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Speaker shall take such action as may be 
     necessary to provide an appropriate remedy to ensure that the 
     integrity of the legislative process is protected, and shall 
     report his actions and recommendations to the House.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr. WALKER, ruled that the resolution 
submitted did present a question of the privileges of the House under 
rule IX.
  Mr. ARMEY moved to lay the resolution on the table.
  The question being put, viva voce,
  Will the House lay the resolution on the table?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore, Mr. WALKER, announced that the yeas had it.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER demanded a recorded vote on agreeing to said motion, 
which demand was supported by one-fifth of a quorum, so a recorded vote 
was ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device.

It was decided in the

Yeas

236

affirmative

Nays

189
```