House Dems demand ethics probe into budget-bill typo

February 16, 2006

House Dems demand ethics probe into budget-bill typo

By Patrick O'Connor and Jeffrey Young

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday called for an ethics committee investigation on a controversial change made to the budget reconciliation bill before it was signed by President Bush last week.

Thursday's floor vote was the most recent chapter in an ongoing clash between Republicans and Democrats in the House about the constitutionality of the bill after a Senate clerk made a slight change to language in the House-Senate compromise before House members re-voted on the measure on Feb. 1.

Pelosi introduced a privileged resolution to put Republicans on the record defending their leadership's decision not to bring the bill back to the floor for a fix. The resolution predictably failed when Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) raised a motion to table it, which was approved 219-187 along strict party lines, with six Democrats voting "present," including all five on the ethics committee.

Republican leaders are refusing to bring the bill back to the floor on the grounds that Bush has already signed the measure into law. The House Republican leadership has taken the position that the minor difference between the House and Senate versions of the bill is not relevant.

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