GOP in no rush to name new page board members

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) will not appoint new GOP members to the House page board until reforms are made to the beleaguered page program.

“It would be irresponsible for the Republican leader to reinstate members to a board that is quite obviously broken,” Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Boehner, said. “We need to address the problem first, in a way that gives members and parents full confidence that incidents aren’t going to continue unabated.”

{mosads}Boehner met Tuesday evening with Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to discuss why they decided to resign from the page board on Friday and determine what solutions could be offered to remedy the problems.

Democratic and Republican staffers met on Monday afternoon for an hour to discuss ways to improve the security and safety of the pages after misconduct that resulted in two pages being expelled from the program.

Boehner’s counsel and another staffer attended the meeting.

Democrats said they are concerned about the pages’ behavior, but are noting they passed bipartisan legislation earlier this year to reform the page program in the wake of the 2006 Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) scandal.

Democrats also argue that Republican members of the page board were informed immediately about the two pages expelled from the program for engaging in public oral sex, while the Republicans on the page board withheld information for months about Foley’s sexually explicit communications, a senior House Democratic aide said.

Members of the page board include Chairman Dale Kildee (D-Mich.); Diana DeGette (D-Colo.); a former page; a parent of a page; and the sergeant at arms.