Outside Speeches Reward House Leaders, Charities

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) received $32,000 in speaking fees last year, according to House financial disclosure forms made public today.

Foley donated $5,000 of the honorariums to charity. In 1988, when he was House majority leader, Foley accepted $34,750 in speaking fees.

Foley also got a healthy boost in salary when he was elected House Speaker to succeed Rep. Jim Wright (D-Tex.) a year ago after Wright was forced to resign. Foley’s salary--half a year as majority leader and half as Speaker--was $107,034. He also reported receiving $26,462 on the sale of various stocks managed by a blind trust.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, catapulted into the majority leader’s post last year, accepted $34,500 in honorariums and donated $7,500 to charity.

But the speaking fees accepted by Foley and Gephardt were dwarfed by their leadership colleague, Rep. William H. Gray III of Pennsylvania, the assistant majority leader. Gray received $164,098 in speaking fees and gave $139,098 to charity.

House members are allowed to keep honorariums totaling up to 30% of their congressional salaries. The base salary for House members was $89,500.

Not all benefits that went to House members came from their speaking ability.

Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colo.) received $14,000 in income from designing jewelry, most of it for people in Colorado.

Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, can see all the baseball games he wants. He received an American League baseball pass from Bud Selig, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and a National League pass from the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who was National League commissioner at the time.