Congress

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday he will for a third time call on Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to urge the ethics committee to investigate alleged House floor bribery, but if the Republican leader continues to balk, he vowed Democrats will be forced to file a complaint.

A House Democratic leader said yesterday that he plans to press for an investigation by the chamber's ethics committee of alleged Republican vote-buying during deliberations on a new Medicare drug plan last November, threatening to end an informal agreement among lawmakers to refrain from triggering inquiries against one another.

A group of Washington-area House members plans to introduce a resolution Tuesday that would put the House on record in support of a "pay parity" raise in the upcoming fiscal 2005 budget debate.

House Democrats are on the cusp of breaking the seven-year cease-fire with Republicans over filing ethics complaints, sources throughout the Caucus confirm.

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

As Hefley well knows, the ethics committee doesn't need a House member to file a complaint before launching an investigation. But he's poised to use that as an excuse to bury the Medicare bribe story.

House Minority Whip Hoyer and House Administration Chairman Ney today lauded the passage of the FY04 omnibus appropriations bill for its inclusion of a $1.5 billion earmark to help fund the 2002 Help America Vote Act

House Minority Whip Hoyer faulted President Bush today for evaporated budget surpluses, education funding, healthcare issues and an environmental "assault on the air, the water and the land."