Nancy Pelosi: “pursuant to rule IX, I rise in regard to a question of the privileges of the House, and I offer a privileged resolution…”

“pursuant to rule IX, I rise in regard to a question of the privileges of the House, and I offer a privileged resolution that would create a bipartisan task force to return to ethical rules of the House. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The Clerk will report the resolution. The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 213 Whereas, the constitution of the United States authorizes the House of Representatives to ``determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member''; Whereas, in 1968, in compliance with this authority and to uphold its integrity and ensure that Members act in a manner that reflects credit on the House of Representatives, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct was established; Whereas, the ethics procedures in effect during the 108th congress, and in the three preceding Congresses, were enacted in 1997 in a bipartisan manner by an overwhelming vote of the House of Representatives upon the bipartisan recommendation of the ten-member Ethics Reform Task Force, which conducted a thorough and lengthy review of the entire ethics process; Whereas, in the 109th Congress, for the first time in the history of the House of Representatives, decisions affecting the ethics process have been made on a partisan basis without consulting the Democractic Members of the Committee or of the House; Whereas, the Chairman of the Committee, and two of his Republican c…”