Washington – Responding to Democratic charges that House Republicans changed ethics rules early this year to shield Majority Leader Tom DeLay from investigation for wrongdoing, Republicans on Wednesday reversed position.
DeLay, R-Texas, pledged that his office will turn over “everything that we have” about controversial overseas trips, as House Republicans overwhelmingly agreed to rescind rules changes that led to a shutdown of the ethics committee.
The decision – announced by Republican leaders Wednesday morning and ratified Wednesday night by a 406-to-20 House vote – was a rare concession of error by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other GOP leaders who had pushed the rules through over strong objections from Democrats.
The standoff had left the chamber with no mechanism for investigating the mounting questions about trips DeLay accepted.
All 20 of those voting against restoring the old rules were Republicans.
DeLay said that as soon as the committee reconvenes, he wants it to issue “clear guidelines to the members when it comes to these trips and how they are taken.” The majority leader said he will also ask the committee to “look at these issues as it not only pertains to me, but the entire House.”
He defended the concept of congressional travel and said he would oppose efforts to stymie it. “I know some of these leftist groups would love to isolate members of Congress so that we don’t talk to Americans,” he said.
Last year, the ethics committee, when its chairman was Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., admonished DeLay three times for official conduct deemed inappropriate by members.
Republican leaders then took Hefley off the committee. Hefley had crusaded for a restoration of the rules.
“He’s very pleased there’s some headway on this,” said Hefley spokeswoman Kim Sears. “He’s pleased to see the beginning stages of a resolution.”
Since the committee’s rules were altered, Delay’s foreign travel and ties to Washington lobbyists, including Jack Abramoff, have drawn close media scrutiny.
The Washington Post reported last weekend that Abramoff charged DeLay’s airfare to London and Scotland to his American Express credit card in 2000. House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists.
House members are given a 71-page “Gifts and Travel” booklet that spells out acceptable practices. Asked whether the rules were clear, DeLay replied, “No, obviously not.”
The ethics committee is split between five Republicans and five Democrats, making it the only committee that does not have a Republican majority, and Democrats used that leverage to refuse to allow the committee to meet under rules changes that Republicans pushed through in January. Democrats refused to negotiate until Republicans announced Monday that they would go back to the rules that had prevailed from 1997 until this year.
Amid loud grumbling from some Texans and conservatives, Hastert convinced a closed-door meeting of House Republicans early Wednesday that they needed to support the repeal of three ethics rules changes made in January.
One, known as the “automatic dismissal rule,” required the committee to dismiss a complaint against a member after 45 days if the committee was deadlocked over the matter. Under the old rule, the committee would have to continue considering the complaint.
After the closed meeting of GOP members, Hastert insisted that the January rules changes were fair but said he was “willing to step back” because Democrats were using the changes as a reason to block the panel from organizing.
Wednesday’s developments are certain to trigger prolonged political warfare in the House over ethics standards. Republicans have vowed to try to shift the focus of the controversy to the Democrats. Hastert said last week that there are “four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats,” whom he did not name.
