WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, pledged Wednesday that his office will turn over “everything that we have” about controversial overseas trips, as House Republicans overwhelmingly agreed to rescind rules changes imposed in January that led to a shutdown of the ethics committee.
The decision – announced by Republican leaders Wednesday morning and ratified Wednesday night by a 406-20 House vote – was a rare concession of error by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other GOP leaders who had pushed through the rules over strong objections from Democrats.
The standoff had left the chamber with no mechanism for investigating mounting questions about trips DeLay accepted.
DeLay said that as soon as the committee reconvenes, he wants it to issue what he called “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 congressional travel and said he would oppose efforts to limit 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.
The ethics committee admonished DeLay three times last year for official conduct deemed inappropriate by members. Since then, his foreign travel and ties to Washington, D.C., lobbyists, including Jack Abramoff, have drawn close media scrutiny.
The Washington Post has reported 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 booklet that spells out acceptable practices. Asked if the rules were not clear, DeLay replied, “No, obviously not.”
Ethics committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who Hastert named in February after his predecessor ran afoul of the party leadership, said he is ready to appoint a subcommittee to investigate what he has called “various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. DeLay.”
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