WASHINGTON WATCH : Overdraft City

Full disclosure. That’s the only way to handle the brouhaha over whether to identify the members of the House of Representatives who abused their check-writing privileges at the now defunct House bank.

A big, ugly fight is expected next week when the full House considers the Ethics Committee’s recommendation to identify the 19 current and five former House members, who were singled out because their accounts were overdrawn by more than a month’s net salary for at least eight out of 39 months between July 1, 1988, and Oct 3, 1991.

The special House-operated bank allowed members to write checks on their accounts but did not charge fees for overdrafts. The special treatment was not illegal and no public funds were lost.

But the bank was closed down after the General Accounting Office reported the abuses. The House Ethics Committee followed up with its own investigation and found 20,000 bad checks were written during the 39-month period. Nearly 200 members--identified only by account numbers to be fair during the probe--were overdrawn by more than a month’s salary and scores of other members wrote hundreds of bad checks.

The House committee should disclose the identities of all overdrawn House members. If the list includes members who inadvertently bounced a check or two for small amounts, that is easy enough to explain. An honest error is entirely acceptable.

The task is for House members to balance political interests and public confidence. The latter requires full disclosure.