Response by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) to Comments Today by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

RESPONSE BY REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) TO COMMENTS TODAY BY HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA)
January 18, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following comments in response to statements by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other congressional Democrat leaders on the need for passage of lobbying reform measures in the United States Congress:

"When I hear Democratic Party leaders throwing around terms like 'culture of corruption,' I have to think: 'You oughta know.'

"Yes, Republicans are outraged by the actions of Jack Abramoff. But we're outraged, in part, because our standards are higher than the standards that were held by the Democratic majority we replaced after 1994. We are repulsed at Abramoff and his crimes, in part, because they remind us of the corruption we uprooted and stamped out when we took the majority away from the Democrats a decade ago.

"Minority Leader Pelosi, who has served in Congress since 1987 and was part of the last Democratic majority, should recall that corruption well. It wasn't that long ago that gifts and personal loans from S&L interests to a Democratic committee chairman, made in hopes of winning favorable treatment from regulators, resulted in a half-trillion dollar scandal and a $125 billion tab for the American taxpayer. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the House Administration Committee stood idly by while drugs were being dealt from the House Post Office, hundreds of Members of Congress were bouncing checks and floating themselves zero-interest loans from the House Bank, and lobbyists were being given assigned parking spots on the Capitol grounds. Nor was it that long ago that the Democratic chairman of the Ways & Means Committee was trading taxpayer-purchased stamps for personal cash, leading to his conviction and jail time in 1993.

"An honorable majority responds to its stumbles with contrition, reform, and an effort to fix that which is broken. This is precisely the path Speaker Hastert and Chairman Dreier have charted for our majority in recent days. I applaud the Speaker for his leadership, and challenge Minority Leader Pelosi to join Republicans in our effort to change the way Congress works."

During his freshman year, Boehner and fellow members of the reform-minded "Gang of Seven" took on the House establishment and successfully closed the House Bank, uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House Restaurant, and exposed drug sales and cozy cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office. Boehner later pushed successfully for passage of the Congressional Accountability Act, legislation requiring Congress to live under the same laws it imposes on the rest of the country.

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