House Won’t Release Post Office Probe Results

After fierce debate that forced Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) to the House floor to deny accusations about his conduct, Democrats successfully squelched a Republican effort Thursday to release records of an internal investigation of the House post office.

The House voted virtually along party lines, 244 to 183, to accede to a Justice Department request that files and testimony from the investigation remain confidential until completion of criminal proceedings that recently implicated House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.).

Former House Postmaster Robert V. Rota pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to conspiracy and embezzlement and said that he had schemed with two congressmen to trade stamps purchased with government funds for tens of thousands of dollars in cash over a 20-year period. Although names were not mentioned in Rota’s plea bargain papers, related documents indicated that Rostenkowski was one of those congressmen.

Rostenkowski, who maintains his innocence, is an ally of the White House in current conference committee efforts to forge a compromise between the House and Senate on President Clinton’s economic package. If indicted, Rostenkowski, who voted to support the Democrats’ resolution Thursday but was absent for the debate, would have to relinquish his chairmanship until proved innocent.

House Republicans had been pushing for release of documents generated by a bipartisan task force that reported its findings on the House post office scandal last July 22. A report by Republican members of the task force heaped blame on House Democrats, although virtually ignoring stamps-for-cash allegations. Democratic members concluded that there was “no merit whatsoever” to allegations that House members had abused the stamp procurement process.

In remarks on the House floor Thursday, Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) urged release of the documents, calling on House members to “summon up our last remaining shreds of courage and dignity and let the American people see what the insiders already know.”

Democrats argued that releasing the documents would jeopardize the investigation currently being conducted by the Department of Justice, citing a letter from U.S. Atty. J. Ramsey Johnson asking the House to refrain from releasing any materials from the task force inquiry.

The debate took a rancorous turn when Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) challenged Foley to come to the floor to “confirm or deny” allegations that the Speaker had a telephone conversation with Atty. Gen. Janet Reno “about the advisability of releasing information from the task force.”

Johnson’s letter, providing Democrats with “the cover needed” to block release of the documents, arrived at the House shortly after Foley’s call, Thomas said.

In a rare display of anger, Foley stepped down from his Speaker’s chair and called Thomas’ suspicions “totally and absolutely incorrect,” denying that he, anyone from his staff or any member of the Democratic leadership made such a call.