House Rescinds GOP Ethics Changes

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) pledged yesterday 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 yesterday morning and ratified last night by a 406 to 20 House vote -- was a rare concession of error by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 if 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 organize the committee under rule 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 yesterday 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.

Another rule change, known as "right to counsel," gave members the right to a lawyer of their choice if called before the committee. Democrats complained that would allow one lawyer to represent multiple witnesses and learn all the evidence.

A third, the due-process rule, guaranteed a member the right to respond if the committee were about to issue a public letter of reprimand or admonishment. Democrats said that could force a hearing too quickly, but they agreed that members should have some kind of notice.

After the closed meeting of GOP members, Hastert insisted that the January rule 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. Without mentioning DeLay by name, Hastert referred to a member "on our side" who "needs to have the process move forward so he can clear his name -- right now, we can't clear his name."