FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 13, 2005

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Pelosi: ‘Republicans Are Engaged in Abuse of Power and the American People are Paying the Price’

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held a news conference this morning with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to discuss the Republican’s abuse of power and its effect on the American people.  Below are Pelosi’s remarks:

“Ten years ago, the Republicans, in their Contract with America, claimed that they had to restore the trust between the American people and their representatives in government.  Here we are today with the radical right-wing Republican majority that is destroying that trust, and doesn’t want to play by the rules.  In fact, this Republican majority wants to be above the law.

“They want to be above the law when it comes to respecting minority rights, which are part of the law of our land, and witness what they are doing now in the Senate to try to stifle debate by eliminating the right of the filibuster.

“This happens on a regular basis in the House of Representatives.  It is well documented by our Rules Committee Ranking Member, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, and I refer you to her document on how Democrats have not been allowed to bring resolutions, amendments, and substitutes to the floor, where the marketplace of ideas that our Founding Fathers intended is greatly muzzled by the Republicans who think they are above the law of the land.

“We also have a situation where they do not want to uphold an ethical standard and that has a direct impact on the lives of the American people.  Look at the impact of the energy lobbyists writing the energy bill.  The lack of an energy policy is producing higher prices at the pump.  Mr. Dingell, Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has a report that shows that the energy bill that the energy lobbyists want to write, which comes before us next week, makes prices higher at the pump; 70 percent of the American people have already said that the price at the pump is having an impact in their lives.

“Another example of where the low ethical standard impacts the lives of the American people is the Medicare prescription drug bill.  This is a bill where the pharmaceutical industry insisted that there be a prohibition on the federal government negotiating for lower prices in the prescription drug bill, and it’s in the bill.  And now we see the wholesale prices of pharmaceutical drugs are rising at twice the rate of inflation.  This has a tremendous impact on the budget of America’s seniors, indeed anyone who depends on prescription drugs.

“Republicans are engaged in an abuse of power, and the American people are paying the price at the pump, and they are paying the price at the pharmacy.  Don’t take it from me.  These are issues that the Ethics Committee has already spoken to in regard to the unethical performance of Republican Leader Tom DeLay in the House of Representatives.

“So what do the Republicans do?  They gut the ethics process, they purge the Ethics Committee, casting aside the Chairman and two Members who they thought were not operating at their direction.  They then gut the rules so that the Committee is effectively nonexistent and they want to make other changes that would further diminish the ethical standards in the House.

“In addition to this, the Majority Leader in the House is presenting thinly veiled threats against the federal judiciary.  He may not care about the system of checks and balances, but the American people do.

“So we have an issue here that is as fundamental as our Constitution.  It’s about respecting the freedom of speech, minority rights, and not operating above the law as Republicans are. 

“I agree with Leader Reid.  We have to get this behind us so that we can move on with creating new jobs, expanding access to health care, broadening opportunities for education for all of our children, protecting our environment, having a strong national defense, and having accountability for all that we do, in our budget and in our ethical standards. 

“Only then will be honoring the oath of office that all of us take to protect and defend the Constitution.”

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REPUBLICANS’ ABUSE OF POWER UNDERMINES ETHICS AND SHUTS OUT DEMOCRACY

The Republican majority promised after the 1994 elections to manage the House in a way that fostered “deliberative democracy,” which they defined as the “full and free airing of conflicting opinions through hearings, debates, and amendments.”  They also pledged in their Contract with America to “restore accountability to Congress" and to “end its cycle of scandal and disgrace.”  Instead of sticking to their word, they have broken their promises, betrayed the public trust, and abused their power.  Specifically, they have undermined the ethics of the House, abandoned any principle of procedural fairness or democratic accountability, and overreached into private family matters and the federal judiciary. 

Republicans have created a democracy-free zone.   In March, Rep. Louise Slaughter, ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, released an in-depth report on rules abuses by Republicans during the 108th Congress. Under the current House leadership, floor debate is muzzled, votes are cast with fear of retribution and legitimate amendments never see the light of day. They ram thousands of pages of major legislation through with only a few hours for review, permit few if any floor amendments (4 percent in the Democratic amendments submitted in the 108th), and hold open floor votes until enough arms have been twisted to ensure passage. As a result, many Members do not have an opportunity to express the views and values of their constituents - effectively disenfranchising half the country. Democrats are demanding that Congress return to a deliberative process worthy of the “People’s House,” where allegiance to the American people outweighs partisan ideology and the influence of special interests.

Republicans effectively shut down the ethics process.  Republicans made their first order of business for the 109th Congress to attack the Ethics Committee, rewriting many of its bipartisan rules in favor of rules that will make ethics investigations more difficult to pursue. The new rules seriously weaken enforcement by automatically dismissing any ethics complaint after 45 days unless a majority of the bipartisan committee votes to begin an investigation.  The GOP rules change allows one party to block the Ethics Committee from investigating the facts of the complaint.  The former Republican chairman of the Ethics Committee said: “The rules package adopted by the House in January stands to undermine the committee’s mission, not to mention the integrity of the House.” (Congress Daily AM, 3/16/05) That the GOP’s first priority for the 109th Congress has been to lower the bar of integrity should be a warning to the American people.  

Not only did Republicans undermine the ethics process, but they stacked the Ethics Committee.  At the beginning of the year, the Republican Leadership dismissed Republican Members of the Ethics Committee, even the Chairman, who had refused to compromise the ethics rules for the party leadership. And then, the newly appointed Chairman unilaterally fired non-partisan Committee staff who assisted in the ethics work in the last session.  In a statement to the press, the departing Chairman of the Committee stated “[t]here is a bad perception out there that there was a purge in the Committee and that people were put in that would protect our side of the aisle better than I did,” and a replaced Republican Member noted his belief that “the decision [regarding his dismissal] was a direct result of our work in the last session.”

Republicans are protecting Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has been admonished three times by the Ethics Committee.  Last fall, the House Majority Leader was admonished three times by the Ethics Committee for: offering political support in return for a vote on the prescription drug bill; misusing federal resources for partisan political purposes; and offering special access for campaign contributor, Westar Energy.  These admonishments were unanimous and bipartisan. The Ethics Committee also warned DeLay that it had identified a clear pattern of misbehavior by him and would be on the lookout for additional instances when he pushed the bounds of acceptable conduct in pursuing his legislative and political goals.

Media stories are raising new questions about the conduct of Majority Leader Tom DeLay.  In recent weeks, newspaper articles have detailed trips DeLay took to Russia and Scotland that he had reported were funded by nonprofit organizations, but which were directly or indirectly paid for by lobbyists or foreign agents. House rules prohibit members from taking trips funded by such entities.  In both cases, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was involved in these trips.  Tom DeLay’s extensive ties with special interest lobbyists are raising serious questions about his conduct.

Even the Wall Street Journal has raised questions.  In fact, even conservatives have begun to raise questions about the Majority Leader.  As the Wall Street Journal editorial page commented, “The problem…is that Mr. DeLay, who rode to power in 1994 on a wave of revulsion at the everyday ways of big government, has become the living exemplar of some of its worst habits. Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff might be innocent, in a strictly legal sense, but it strains credulity to believe that Mr. DeLayfound nothing strange with being included in Mr. Abramoff's lavish junkets.”  They went on to say, “Whether Mr. DeLayviolated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out.”  (Wall Street Journal,3/28/05)

Congressional Republicans raise questions about DeLay.  Republican leader, Sen. Rick Santorum stated that Majority Leader DeLay needed to "lay out what he did and why he did it" (Los Angeles Times, 4/11/05)Housemember Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) said,"Tom [DeLay]'s conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," in an interview with the AP calling for DeLay to step down as majority leader. (USA Today, 4/11/05)

Republicans threaten an independent judiciary and assert themselves in private family matters.  Republicans have said they believe in limited government, but then the majority brought the entire federal government to intervene in the personal tragedy of just one family.  Likewise, their thinly-veiled threats toward federal judges are just an irresponsible attempt to undermine the independence of the federal judiciary.  Speaking about the federal judges involved in the Terri Schiavo matter, DeLay said, “The time will come for the men to answer for their behavior.” 

House Democrats have a better way.  House Democrats urge the majority to restore accountability and democratic deliberation to the people’s House.  Democrats would open up the process by allowing debate and votes on more serious amendments; allow more bills to be considered under open rules; spend more time on major, substantive legislation; bring back regular order; and give Members three days to read conference reports.  Further, Democrats would establish a bipartisan committee to make recommendations to restore a bipartisan and effective ethics process.  Democrats introduced a resolution to put together a bipartisan task force that would make recommendations that would restore public confidence in the ethics process, but Republicans killed the resolution, without debate. Members of the House should be held to the highest ethical standard, not the lowest.

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi