Committee members probing contested vote count promise cooperation, efficiency

The six members of a committee appointed to investigate last month’s partisan squabble over a contested vote count are expected to convene this week, despite questions about how the group will be funded and even what it’s called.

{mosads}At a Sept. 5 press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that since the incident was available on videotape, lawmakers should conclude their work on the panel quickly.

“It is a unique case where all 27 minutes of the controversy are on television and can be replayed and stopped and fast-forwarded and moved back, so we think the committee hopefully can do its work in a very efficient fashion, and hopefully will do so,” Hoyer said. A spokeswoman for Hoyer reiterated that sentiment in an e-mail Monday.

Although in a Sept. 7 letter to Pelosi, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) referred to the panel as the “Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007,” Pelosi said in response to a question during the Sept. 5 meeting: “It is not a select committee. I thought you were talking about the Select Committee to End Global Warming.”

Pelosi has deferred decisions regarding the committee to Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), who will serve as its chairman, according to a spokesman.

The vote at issue occurred on Aug. 2 at about 11 p.m. on an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill. Rep. Michael McNulty (D-N.Y.), who was presiding in the Speaker’s chair during the vote, declared the Republican amendment failed 214-214 even though the electronic tally board above the House floor showed the amendment passing by a margin of 215-213 when he gaveled the vote to a close.

The interim report on the incident is due Sept. 30, a Sunday and the last day of the fiscal year.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who is the ranking member of the committee, remained positive last week that the committee would produce important information and recommendations. He said a recent conversation with Delahunt reaffirmed his thoughts.

“We had a very candid and constructive meeting with Mr. Delahunt … I sense that he is taking this responsibility very seriously,” Pence said. “I think both of us are very interested and have strong feelings to try to follow the facts.”

When asked about the Sunday deadline, Pence said he was not sure why the date was selected.

Asked whether the $1 million request for professional staff, consultants and other costs outlined by Boehner in the Sept. 7 letter to Pelosi was appropriate, the former Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman said he hoped costs would be lower, but that funding was necessary.

“We’ve got staffing issues — I sure hope the cost will be less, but I also think the committee should be staffed and should be funded,” he said. “The support of this select committee is quite important because at the end of the day members of Congress are expected to vote. The integrity of the House is tied up in the voting process.”

Pence said electronic equipment and expert advice could be among the expenses.

A spokesman for current RSC Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Brad Dayspring, suggested that Pelosi’s office fit the bill.

“Since House Democrats have agreed this action was unfortunate and should be investigated, funding for the investigation should come out of the Speaker’s budget rather than becoming an additional expense for taxpayers who have already been defrauded,” he said.

Hoyer agreed to permit the creation of the bipartisan committee after Republicans loudly rejected his suggestion to refer the matter to the ethics committee.

Dayspring added that the “lost” vote was of particular importance, given that the Republican amendment that failed would have stripped out provisions to give illegal immigrants rights to government services.

“The integrity of the House was called into question when the Democrat leadership changed the outcome of a vote after it had ended, against the will and rights of a voting majority of the House and the people they represent, who overwhelmingly believe that illegal immigrants should not receive government benefits,” he said.

Former ethics committee members Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) will join Democratic Reps. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (S.D.) and Artur Davis (Ala.) as the other lawmakers on the committee.

Pence said he was surprised and humbled when Boehner asked him to head up the GOP side of the committee given the credentials of his colleagues, who both served and were taken off the ethics committee after voting to admonish former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).