Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

        [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.
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