Pension Killing Bill Falls Short

PENSION-KILLING BILL FALLS SHORT

Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, today the House will consider legislation to kill the pensions of Members of Congress convicted of a felony.

Amazingly, lawmakers who broke the law collect taxpayer-funded pensions after conviction. Rostenkowski collects after mail fraud; Traficant collects after corruption; Cunningham collects after bribery; and Ney collects after conspiracy.

Today's bill is a step forward, but blocks pensions for only four felonies: bribery, being a foreign agent, conspiracy to defraud, and perjury. The key story is what is missing.

Our House leadership presented a bill, but banned an amendment that would add 17 public corruption felonies to the list. Under today's unamended bill, Congressmen would still get a pension if convicted of income tax invasion, wire fraud, intimidation to secure contributions, and racketeering. Speaker Pelosi voted for these tougher reforms in 1996, but appears to have changed her mind.

Mr. Speaker, I will support the bill before the House because it is the result of reform-minded Members like me who brought it to the floor, but it does fall 17 felonies short of the reforms needed to fully clean up this House.

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