Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, the first day of a new Congress should be a day for hope. It should be a day when all of us look forward…”

“Mr. Speaker, the first day of a new Congress should be a day for hope. It should be a day when all of us look forward with optimism to the work ahead. But today is not that kind of day. Instead, the leadership of this House is beginning the new year in the worst possible way, by gutting the ethical standards of the United States House of Representatives. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. In the rules package before us today, the Republican leadership is sending a very clear message. They are admitting that they are so ethically challenged that they cannot conform to the rules they previously adopted, so they must now relax those rules. What an awful example to the Nation and to the rest of the world. We should be strengthening the ethical standards of this House, not weakening them. Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party regained a majority of seats in this body in 1994, in part by promising greater accountability and a more honest system in the Nation's capital. Their actions have been anything but honest; and now with this rules package, their rush to the bottom continues.”