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Clyburn impatient with pending Jefferson appointment |
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By Jackie Kucinich
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Posted: 03/27/07 07:41 PM [ET] |
More than a month after Democratic leaders announced Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) appointment to the Homeland Security Committee, his chair still sits empty in the hearing room. And one member of the Democratic leadership is getting impatient.
“I have made it clear that I favor Mr. Jefferson’s [appointment],” said Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.). “It is unfair to the people of Louisiana who have the right to be heard on the House floor.”
Republicans earlier this month threatened to force a vote on Jefferson’s nomination, and since then, the lawmaker’s appointment has been stalled.
Asked why Jefferson’s committee appointment remains in limbo, Clyburn said it was the decision of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who control the floor schedule.
A spokesman for Pelosi said the appointment is still pending.
Hoyer’s office had no comment on the matter.
Jefferson spokeswoman Remi Braden-Cooper said Jefferson has not heard from leadership officials recently about the panel assignment.
Last month, Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) blasted Pelosi for her endorsement of Jefferson for the panel, calling the selection “ludicrous.”
“I won’t support that — it’s such a contradiction of what the Speaker said [earlier],” Blunt told reporters, referring to Pelosi’s promise to run the most ethical Congress in history.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Jefferson then confronted Blunt about his comments on the House floor later that day.
Many political insiders have been surprised that federal prosecutors have yet to indict Jefferson. The lawmaker has maintained his innocence throughout the well-publicized probe.
The FBI found $90,000 in cash in Jefferson’s freezer when it raided his home last year as part of an investigation into whether he accepted bribes related to a telecommunications deal in Africa.
“Of course no member wants to vote on this,” said Naomi Seligman Steiner, a spokeswoman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Pelosi last year stripped Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee, a move that angered members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who argued that Jefferson had not been indicted or found guilty of any crime and that ousting him from the tax-writing panel created an unfair precedent.
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