Inquiry Sought in House Vote on Drug Plan for Medicare

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February 2, 2004
Inquiry Sought in House Vote on Drug Plan for Medicare

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/politics/02ETHI.html?ei=5062&en=42d28fbf377fe887&ex=1076302800&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

By CARL HULSE


WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — A leading House Democrat has called on Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to initiate an ethics investigation into accusations of bribery during last November's vote on the new Medicare drug plan, warning that Democrats will conduct their own inquiry if the House leader does not act.

In a Jan. 20 letter to the speaker, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, said an investigation by the House ethics committee was needed to protect the reputation of the House after Representative Nick Smith, Republican of Michigan, said groups and lawmakers had offered support for his son's Congressional campaign if Mr. Smith backed the measure, which passed 220 to 215.

"Until such time as the committee renders its own conclusions on the matter, the House will operate under a cloud of public suspicion," Mr. Hoyer wrote in his five-page letter.

Mr. Hoyer said a failure by Mr. Hastert to request an inquiry would leave "no alternative but for individual members" to seek one, a move that would shatter an unofficial truce the parties have observed in recent years after ethics complaints were wielded as political weapons in the 1990's.

Republican officials said the Hoyer appeal smacked of politics and suggested Democrats were using the ethics process to try to score election-year points in their effort to regain the House majority. A spokesman for Mr. Hastert, Republican of Illinois, said the speaker did not intend to ask for an investigation, saying the decision should be left to the ethics panel, led by Representative Joel Hefley, Republican of Colorado.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Tomorrow's News: "Tom Delay calls for an investigation and will

select the committee members"