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Ethics panel picks up complaints filed on Gingrich, DeLay,
Shuster
By GREG McDONALD
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The newly formed House ethics committee has voted to carry over
complaints filed during the last Congress against three Republican leaders: House Speaker
Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, and House
Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania.
The decision to consider the complaints was made during the first meeting of the ethics panel,
which began operations this week with a new set of members and rules governing how future
ethics charges against House members can be filed and disposed.
DeLay had hoped that the complaint against him, which charges that he provided political
favors for clients of his lobbyist brother, Randy, would be dismissed. But in keeping with a
tradition of carrying over ethics complaints from one Congress to the next, the committee
voted to keep the complaint active. The committee's new rules would have prevented the
complaint from being filed had they been in place last year.
DeLay acknowledged that the panel's decision is "consistent with prior committee precedents."
But he added that it would likely be "disposed of once and for all" once committee members
fully examine it.
"As this frivolous charge was first made right before the last election, I also expect that the
ethics committee will expose it for the political charade that it very clearly is," DeLay said.
The complaint against DeLay was filed last year by the Washington-based Congressional
Accountability Project, which cited newspaper reports indicating that DeLay had backed a
number of bills and issues before Congress that were being promoted by his brother. DeLay
has since banned any contact between his office and his brother over legislative matters. Aides
say the congressman never talks to his brother about matters pending before Congress.
The Congressional Accountability Project also filed a complaint last year against Shuster,
raising questions about his ties to transportation lobbyist Ann Eppard, who served as his chief
of staff for 22 years. She worked more recently as his assistant campaign treasurer helping to
raise more than $1 million from the transportation industry.
The DeLay and Shuster complaints were filed under old committee rules that allowed outside
groups and individuals to lodge charges against members if they had knowledge or evidence of
wrongdoing. But the House voted a few weeks ago to prohibit outside complaints in the
future. New regulations say complaints against House members can only be filed by other
House members.
Labeled "the corrupt politicians protection act" by critics, the new rule also would have
blocked the complaint filed against Gingrich in 1994 that led to his being fined $300,000 for
unethical conduct earlier this year.
In addition to the DeLay and Shuster complaints, the ethics panel decided to keep open a
second complaint against Gingrich charging that he accepted illegal campaign contributions
from his own political action committee for personal use and may have funneled illegal
donations to other campaigns.
Despite its decision to carry over the complaints against DeLay and Shuster, CAP director
Gary Ruskin said he is not optimistic that the ethics panel will pursue the cases in the end
because of the new rules they will be operating under.
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