Porter Goss: “I am truly sad to have to get up and take these 5 minutes today. I had no intention of having to do this, but when I…”

“I am truly sad to have to get up and take these 5 minutes today. I had no intention of having to do this, but when I picked up the newspaper this morning and shook the snow off, I found there was a front page article in one of the leading papers in the Nation's Capital that clearly does not bring credit to this institution. Sadly, it involves one of our important Members who was reportedly under investigation by the executive branch, and he is getting extremely bad press about the way he has been handling public funds for his office. Questions have been raised now about a behind-the-scenes secret cleanup going on, and these questions are being openly asked. Suggestion has been made that perhaps such activity is designed to end-run the rules of the House. As a member of the ethics committee, I speak for myself, but I think other members of the ethics committee would be equally interested in the answer. I believe we are owed some type of explanation about what exactly has been going on, who has been involved, and what is happening, because we have understood so far that the ethics committee has been waiting for the executive branch to do its job. I understand right now that discussions are ongoing between the leadership on the Democratic side and the Republican side, and I hope that those discussions will lead to some information before we recess this afternoon to go on the President's Day break.”