Word: speaker
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...damaging congressional scandal in decades. Instead, he has exposed them to ridicule -- and possible defeat this November -- by failing to crack down on former House sergeant at arms Jack Russ, whose sloppy oversight of the now defunct bank permitted members to write overdrafts long after Russ had assured the Speaker that new procedures to prevent such abuses had been installed. Even after Foley was warned by comptroller general Charles Bowsher in 1989 that Russ himself had bounced $104,825 worth of personal checks at the bank, the Speaker made only one try to remove...
...moment House Speaker Tom Foley must have dreaded since the congressional check-kiting scandal hit the headlines last year. Texas Democrat John Bryant stepped up to the lectern and said, "For Tom Foley, political leadership is not a responsibility which he relishes. I call on ((him)) to retire...
...came in September 1990, nine months after Foley learned about the extent of check kiting at the House bank. Foley lacked the power to fire House officers, who are elected by the entire chamber. Rather, he tried to rewrite the rules of the House Democratic Caucus so that the Speaker, and not the caucus, would draw up the list of nominees for those jobs. Foley argued that the change would allow the Speaker more control over the administrative arms of Congress...
...caucus rejected Foley's proposal, and the Speaker abandoned it. Some caucus members wanted to protect Russ, a back-slapping extrovert who had built a network of bipartisan support by doling out favors to members during his 25- year career on Capitol Hill...
Later that year Texas Democrat Jim Wright stepped down as Speaker after becoming embroiled in an ethics scandal. As House majority leader, Foley was the logical successor to Wright. When some Congressmen sought to reassure themselves that Foley was "squeaky clean," they asked Russ if he had any damaging information about him. Russ told them about the FBI report...