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WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday called for "an immediate and thorough" review of the supervision and security surrounding the congressional page program.
"As a mother and a grandmother, nothing is more important to me than the safety and security of our House pages," Pelosi said.
Pelosi's action came just one day after GOP Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia resigned from the board that sets the policy for the page program. The Clerk of the House manages the group of about 70 high school juniors selected for the program on a day-to-day basis while they stay in the nation's capital.
Brown-Waite pointed to what she says are recent incidents of "serious criminal acts" involving pages and "inappropriate sexual indiscretions between the students," about which she says board members had been "kept in the dark."
None of the incidents involved members of Congress or other adults. The criminal charges were related to shoplifting.
In resigning, Brown-Waite also accused Pelosi and Democrats of paying only "lip-service" to reforming the page program's procedures in the wake of last year’s scandals involving inappropriate e-mail communications by former Florida Rep. Mark Foley with male pages.
A subsequent investigation by the House Ethics Committee found that some of the then-House Republican leaders were negligent and in some cases “willfully ignorant” of Foley’s improper advances to pages, rather than confront the matter.
That scandal is viewed as having contributed to Republicans losing control of the House after last year’s elections.
Now that they are in control of the chamber, Democrats had claimed to fix the problems.
But as media coverage continued to build Friday about the two resignations from the page board and the stated reasons why -- including CNN’s self-dubbed "Pages Gone Wild" report -- Pelosi issued a statement by afternoon.
In that statement, Pelosi said that since January when the House enacted reforms, “the House enforces a zero tolerance policy for page misconduct.”
“That is why the House pages involved in each of these serious incidents were immediately expelled and sent home,” Pelosi said.
Even so, Pelosi said the Page Board must undertake a review of the adequacy of the supervision and security at the Page dorm. She did not provide any details of how that investigation will be conducted.
And the Democratic damage control was not limited to Pelosi.
Earlier, Rep. Dale Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the page board, issued a statement providing a timeline and more context about the recent incidents.
“Since April, the Board has held five meetings to examine and reform the program’s procedures and policies,” he said.
He added that pages who were found in serious violation of the Page Code of Conduct this year were immediately expelled from the program and sent home. But the Page Board, he said, was not satisfied with “the manner and timeliness in which it was informed of these actions.”
“Therefore, in our Page Board meeting of Nov. 9, 2007, the Board unanimously agreed that the Clerk of the House should immediately and simultaneously inform all Members in cases where pages were dismissed from the program,” Kildee added.
Kildee said that happened in “the most recent incident.”
Brown-Waite spokesman Charlie Keller responded to Pelosi’s call for an immediate and thorough review by saying: “That’s great. That’s the point of what we’re doing here.”
“It’s all about the kids and getting adequate supervision of the program” Keller said. she (Pelosi) actually follows through … then this worked. That’s the whole reason for this (for Brown-Waite’s resignation.)
Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.
"As a mother and a grandmother, nothing is more important to me than the safety and security of our House pages," Pelosi said.
Pelosi's action came just one day after GOP Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia resigned from the board that sets the policy for the page program. The Clerk of the House manages the group of about 70 high school juniors selected for the program on a day-to-day basis while they stay in the nation's capital.
Brown-Waite pointed to what she says are recent incidents of "serious criminal acts" involving pages and "inappropriate sexual indiscretions between the students," about which she says board members had been "kept in the dark."
None of the incidents involved members of Congress or other adults. The criminal charges were related to shoplifting.
In resigning, Brown-Waite also accused Pelosi and Democrats of paying only "lip-service" to reforming the page program's procedures in the wake of last year’s scandals involving inappropriate e-mail communications by former Florida Rep. Mark Foley with male pages.
A subsequent investigation by the House Ethics Committee found that some of the then-House Republican leaders were negligent and in some cases “willfully ignorant” of Foley’s improper advances to pages, rather than confront the matter.
That scandal is viewed as having contributed to Republicans losing control of the House after last year’s elections.
Now that they are in control of the chamber, Democrats had claimed to fix the problems.
But as media coverage continued to build Friday about the two resignations from the page board and the stated reasons why -- including CNN’s self-dubbed "Pages Gone Wild" report -- Pelosi issued a statement by afternoon.
In that statement, Pelosi said that since January when the House enacted reforms, “the House enforces a zero tolerance policy for page misconduct.”
“That is why the House pages involved in each of these serious incidents were immediately expelled and sent home,” Pelosi said.
Even so, Pelosi said the Page Board must undertake a review of the adequacy of the supervision and security at the Page dorm. She did not provide any details of how that investigation will be conducted.
And the Democratic damage control was not limited to Pelosi.
Earlier, Rep. Dale Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the page board, issued a statement providing a timeline and more context about the recent incidents.
“Since April, the Board has held five meetings to examine and reform the program’s procedures and policies,” he said.
He added that pages who were found in serious violation of the Page Code of Conduct this year were immediately expelled from the program and sent home. But the Page Board, he said, was not satisfied with “the manner and timeliness in which it was informed of these actions.”
“Therefore, in our Page Board meeting of Nov. 9, 2007, the Board unanimously agreed that the Clerk of the House should immediately and simultaneously inform all Members in cases where pages were dismissed from the program,” Kildee added.
Kildee said that happened in “the most recent incident.”
Brown-Waite spokesman Charlie Keller responded to Pelosi’s call for an immediate and thorough review by saying: “That’s great. That’s the point of what we’re doing here.”
“It’s all about the kids and getting adequate supervision of the program” Keller said. she (Pelosi) actually follows through … then this worked. That’s the whole reason for this (for Brown-Waite’s resignation.)
Reporter Billy House can be reached at bhouse@mediageneral.com or at 1 (202) 662-7673.