Awful Timing

Congressmen balk on ethics

One of the more interesting events in Congress last week was a vote that did not occur. At the last minute, House Speaker Tip O'Neill postponed action on a tough ethics bill for Representatives. He feared it might be drastically watered down by opponents. Explained O'Neill: "The timing was just awful."

House members wrote the new code of ethics into their rules more than a year ago, but legislation making it a law and extending it to the Executive and Judicial branches has been simmering in committee ever since. The code requires extensive disclosure by all Congressmen of their assets and income, and also limits their outside earnings, in most cases to $8,625 a year. This last provision upset many House members, but O'Neill made them agree to it in March 1977 in exchange for a fat increase in pay, from $44,600 to $57,500 a year.

Now, it seems, quite a few Representatives are still trying to abolish the limit on outside income. In particular, it is resented by Congressmen who also are lawyers. There are 222 of them in the 435-member House, though only 42 earned more than $8,650 a year from their practices. The limitation also applies to members who have sizable outside incomes from speaking fees and from businesses that are not owned by them or their families. Says Illinois Democrat Morgan Murphy, who made $60,000 a year in fees from his Chicago law firm: "The abuses and scandals that have hit this Congress are not related to the code of ethics. The fellows who take money or line up some broad are not covered. This code is just a weak attempt to say, 'We're not as bad as you've been reading.' "

The chief architects of the ethics bill, Democrats David Obey of Wisconsin and Richardson Preyer of North Carolina, have been cold-shouldered by many colleagues because of the legislation. Some call Preyer "Chairman Mao," as if he were a dictator regulating their lives. According to Obey, the only time recently that he has got a smile from New York Democrat Mario Biaggi was when an untrue rumor circulated that Obey was retiring.

More than 100 amendments await the bill on the House floor. But what really got O'Neill worried was the fact that the House's code requires Congressmen to file financial disclosure statements with the House clerk by April 30. O'Neill was the first to issue a financial report, listing a net worth of $181,000 and describing himself as "a man of modest means." But other Representatives object to disclosing their personal finances, even though the need for a strong code was underscored last week by the sentencing of former Democratic Representative Richard Hanna of California to jail for six to 30 months for conspiring to defraud the U.S. He was accused of accepting more than $200,000 from Rice Broker Tongsun Park as part of Park's effort to buy congressional support for South Korea.

Also in trouble: former Democratic Representative Otto Passman of Louisiana, indicted for accepting $213,000 from Park, and Democratic Representative Daniel Flood of Pennsylvania, under investigation for suspected kickback schemes. In all, 13 Congressmen and one Senator have been indicted since 1970 for illegal acts committed while in office.

O'Neill is determined to push through the ethics bill, probably in two or three weeks. If there is further caterwauling from disgruntled members, the Speaker has resolved to fight. As Obey puts it, "The credibility of the House is at stake." qed

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