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October 3, 2006, 10:03 am
By
Ky. GOP Rep. Geoff Davis
I am appalled by the actions of Mr. Foley. Had he not resigned, it is my belief that he would have been expelled from the House, and rightfully so. The people of this country will not tolerate this kind of behavior, and neither will I.
As a father and as a supporter of legislation designed to stop the exploitation of children, I hope that House leadership and law enforcement authorities will investigate this matter. Mr. Foley must be held accountable for his actions. If he has violated the law, he should be prosecuted just like anyone else would be.
Earlier this year Mr. Foley's Florida Republican Leadership PAC donated $1,000 to my re-election campaign. On Friday, the same day as Mr. Foley's resignation, I donated $1,000 to Boone County Court Appointed Special Advocates, Inc. (CASA).
CASA volunteers play an instrumental role in child court cases ensuring that children do not get lost in an overwhelmed judicial system. CASA volunteers are appointed by family court judges to serve as advocates for dependent, abused, or neglected children. CASA volunteers work to protect our nation's most vulnerable children. For more information on CASA, please visit: http://www.casanky.org/.
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October 3, 2006, 9:46 am
By
Md. Dem. Sen. Ben Cardin
Michael Steele’s new attack ad is blatantly hypocritical and misleading. Steele has a habit of saying one thing on television and doing another in reality, so it’s important to set the record straight.
Make no mistake, Michael Steele has taken millions in special interest money. On television he says he’s against gifts from lobbyists, but in reality he accepts gifts from lobbyists. His administration is strongly opposed to drug reimportation, so his new position on that issue should raise some eyebrows too. We’re supposed to believe Michael Steele will be a different kind of Senator? This sounds like the same old Washington hypocrisy.
Ben Cardin is the Democratic Senate Candidate from Maryland.
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October 3, 2006, 8:19 am
By
Common Cause President Chellie Pingree
I am sure many of you are as stunned, saddened and angry over the recent revelations that Representative Mark Foley engaged in possibly criminal behavior with minors serving as pages in Congress. This scandal hits close to home for me. In 1993, my daughter Hannah was a page in the Senate. I sent her to Washington and I expected her to be safe and free from harassment. Thousands of other parents have done the same.
This incident raises a number of very troubling questions that demand answers from a scandal-ridden Congress that doesn't like to answer questions. After all, this is a Congress in which we've seen bribery, criminal convictions and former Members sit in jail. The House Ethics Committee has been inactive for the last two years.
But there is something concrete and realistic that the House can do right now to address the anything-goes culture that is so rampant in that chamber.
Common Cause calls on the House of Representatives to return to Washington DC before Election Day on Nov. 7 to establish an outside ethics commission to provide ethics oversight and enforcement of a body that has proven now beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is incapable of policing itself.
Read more...
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October 3, 2006, 6:57 am
By
Ala. Dem. Rep. Bud Cramer
I support a full investigation of former Rep. Foley's actions by Congress and the Justice Department. It is also important that Congress correct any mistakes from this incident, so we can protect Congressional pages from harm in the future.
As further details are disclosed about the interaction between Foley and Congressional pages, the clearer it becomes that we must continue to educate our children about the dangers of online communications. Children are increasingly vulnerable to sexual exploitation while online.
I commend the former pages for making authorities aware of their concerns. It is important that young people know that they can come forward when they feel threatened by online advances, regardless of the source.
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October 3, 2006, 5:09 am
By
Tenn. Dem. Rep. Bart Gordon
For more than five years, Congress has been aware of the serious flaws in the way Medicare calculates physician payments. Right now, physicians receive no payment increase to account for inflation. As their expenses rise, their payments remain stagnant. Essentially, they are receiving less money for services now than they did five years ago.
Unless Congress acts when it returns in November, Medicare physician payments will be cut by more than 5 percent on January 1, 2007. This problem is not a new one, and it should come as no surprise to members of Congress. In fact, we have acted several times to block cuts in physician payments, giving Congress more time to fix the problem.
But that fix is nowhere in sight. House leadership has taken no real action on the issue. Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee held its fifth hearing in 12 months on the issue. What we need is a plan, not another hearing.
Read more...
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October 3, 2006, 4:38 am
By
Mich. Dem. Rep. Dale Kildee
In my 21 years as a Member of the House Page Board, every decision has been made on not just a bi-partisan basis but on a non-partisan basis, with our main concern always being the safety and well-being of the young teenagers who serve the U.S. House as pages.
I was outraged to learn that the House Republican leadership kept to itself the knowledge of Mr. Foley's despicable behavior toward the House Pages.
I am now equally outraged to learn that Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced today that there will be changes in the policies of the House Page program. Once again, I was not informed of the meeting today, nor was I consulted in any way about any proposed changes.
And once again, the House Republican leadership is following the same pattern of unilateral decision-making that caused this problem in the first place in the Mark Foley issue. Speaker Hastert's announcement this afternoon is yet another example of the House Republican leadership being more concerned with finding political cover for themselves than with the safety and well-being of the House pages.
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October 3, 2006, 4:16 am
By
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer
Last week, as Republicans in Congress raced to leave Washington to campaign for the November elections, they once again proved themselves to be the Do-Less-Than-Nothing-Congress. Republicans left a long list of critical issues untouched.
For starters, five years after 9/11, the Republicans in Congress still have not implemented the full recommendations of the 9/11 Committee, thereby failing to make our country as safe as it should be. Republicans also failed to pass 10 of the 11 appropriations bills that are needed to fund the federal government. What's more, the Republican Congress failed to give millions of hardworking Americans a long-overdue raise in the form of an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage.
Finally and most outrageously, Republican leaders failed to act when presented with evidence that Rep. Mark Foley was acting inappropriately with House Pages. The Ethics Committee and the FBI must thoroughly and quickly investigate Mr. Foley's behavior and Republican Leaders' inaction.
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October 3, 2006, 4:04 am
By
Neb. Dem. Sen. Ben Nelson
I’ve looked at the legislation from the vantage point of Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner, given their experience and their particular knowledge of the subject. In addition, I’ve paid close attention to the differences that are emerging, and I’ve concluded that this is the best compromise that I see. It might be a different bill if I wrote it, but this is the bill that can pass.
There is certainly an argument to be made that this in some way modifies Common Article 3. I understand that argument, but in a sense so does the Army manual. What I’ve resolved is that this is the most appropriate way to get legislation through and resolve our differences.
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October 2, 2006, 8:13 pm
By
N.Y. Dem Rep. Louise Slaughter
The Military Commissions Act passed by Congress last week represents a shocking assault on the fundamental freedoms and liberties we have been told that we are fighting to defend.
This bill will dramatically increase the President's right to detain men and women the world over, and to hold them indefinitely without charge. What is more, it will serve as a backdoor legalization of all but the most brutal of interrogation methods, taking our nation down a path we have chastised so many other countries for following.
On Thursday in the Senate, my friend and New York Delegation colleague Hillary Clinton told a story about our country's first great military leader, a man who went on to become our first great political leader. It is deeply relevant to the position in which we find ourselves today.
On Christmas Day in 1776, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington launched a daring raid that culminated in the capture of numerous Hessian soldiers, foreign mercenaries known for their brutality and who were fighting for the British.
Despite what they had done to American soldiers on many previous occasions, Washington ordered his men to treat them humanely. "Let them have not reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army," he said.
Read more...
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October 2, 2006, 10:11 am
By
Ga. Dem. Rep. Cynthia McKinney
On Wednesday, September 27, from 2:00 - 5:30 pm at the Capitol Building, I hosted a briefing for staff and Members of Congress into the history, experimentation, techniques, training, exporting and use of torture by U.S. government in past covert operations abroad and in current operations during the war on terrorism, as well as attempts to make torture, cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners legal and to grant immunity to those who use it.
Our speakers included:
Prof. Alfred McCoy, Ph.D., author of A Question of Torture (statement read)
Jennifer Harbury, Atty., Torture Abolition Survivor & Support Coalition
Elizabeth Alexander, National Prisoner Project, ACLU
Morton Sklar, World Organization for Human Rights, USA
Dr. Juan Romagoza, Central American torture victim
Tara McKelvey, American Prospect magazine editor, ACLU plaintiff in NSA suit
Joey Mogul, Atty., Chicago attorney, police torture of African Americans
They covered a range of topics we want that have arisen since 9/11 as well as current legislative efforts to legitimize its use, including:
* Historical development of specific techniques by both Army and CIA operations, which were visible at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and throughout covert operations in Central America.
* History of US experimentation with, use, training, exporting, funding and direct supervision of torture since the end of WWII.
* The flawed logic of those who support the use of torture, even in "ticking time-bomb" scenarios, including recent legislation on these issues as well as attempts to secretly revise the Army Field Manual rules on interrogations.
* Abandonment of Geneva Convention and international standards in relation to covert operations and the war on terror, the creation of a dual legal system that allows abuses, and the effective legal immunity for torture in US courts, despite the existence of laws that ban and punish it.
Read more...
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