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tions, we should refrain from any further discussions of the disputes regarding the manner in which this matter has been handled. We plainly have strong disagreements regarding the work of the committee during the period preceding the appointment of the special counsel, the actions of the House on January 7, the process followed by the full committee since December 21.

We also have concerns about the schedule, the time needed by the special counsel to prepare and present his report, the opportunity made available for public hearings, the release of information, and the time available to our members to consider the report, et cetera.

The Statement of Alleged Violations Outlines a complex set of political and financial dealings, at the center of which is Representative Newt Gingrich, a Member of the House of Representatives. We now have before us the report of special counsel, which, in a comprehensive, methodical way, lays out the particulars of this case. Today, we will hear from the special counsel concerning the report as well as the response from Mr. Gingrich's counsel. Then we will move to recommend a fair and appropriate punishment to the full House.

Yesterday, a reporter stopped me and asked if the report contained matters different from what had been publicly reported. I was angered by the question. Prior to today, as required by our rules, we have not released any of the supporting record. Our special counsel stated 2 weeks ago all judgments should be withheld until the committee has had a chance to release its findings. Today we release those findings.

It is very important to understand the purpose of today's proceeding. As Mrs. Johnson has pointed out, this is not a disciplinary hearing, a trial, to determine the guilt or innocence of Representative Gingrich. He has by his statement of December 21, 1996, admitted his guilt with respect to each item in the statement of alleged violations.

The ultimate objective of this proceeding is to approve the report and recommend a sanction in the case of Representative Gingrich. We have very little time and a great deal of work to complete this task. The full House will then have its opportunity to act on our recommendations.

Today is a sad day. A Member has admitted violating the ethics rules of our House and bringing discredit on the House of Representatives. This process and this admission affects not only that Member, but affects each of us who serves in this body. While I believe this is true in any ethics proceedings, it is particularly true and particularly troublesome in this case because the offending Member is the Speaker of the House, the third ranking official in our government.

It is never a pleasant matter to sit in judgment on the ethical transgressions of a colleague, but it must be done and the reputation and honor of the House depend on our willingness to do this conscientiously. In fact, it is our solemn constitutional responsibility. We are charged with the duty to judge the qualifications of the Members of the House. I am determined to do my part to see that the committee discharges its duty in a way that reflects credit on the House of Representatives.

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Thank you, Madam Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Cardin.

I now recognize the committee's special counsel, Mr. Cole.

STATEMENT OF JAMES M. COLE, ESQUIRE, SPECIAL COUNSEL, INVESTIGATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE, COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT

Mr. COLE. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you for your very gracious remarks; and thank you, Mr. Cardin, as well.

At the risk of repeating what has already been said, this has been very much a bipartisan process. It is one to be proud of, and I myself have been proud to be associated with the four members of the subcommittee in the work we have produced that is being shown to the American public today.

Mr. Goss was the Chairman of the subcommittee and we couldn't have asked for a better Chair. He was dedicated to consensus, he was dedicated to the respect of everyone's views, and he was dedicated to giving us the time needed to work through some very complicated issues.

Mr. Cardin showed the utmost in cooperative leadership as the Ranking Member, along with Mr. Goss. Mr. Schiff brought a keen legal mind that was very helpful in our deliberations and very helpful in trying to make some sense out of complicated areas, and Ms. Pelosi brought a very practical element of experience in the 501(c)(3) area from her roles in being involved with those kinds of organizations in the past, prior to becoming a Member of Congress.

This could not have been a better group to work with. We came into the matter from a very contentious climate and we decided the only way to get through that climate was to focus on very narrow issues, the good of the House of Representatives, and fairness to Mr. Gingrich.

This meant that we had to be fair to each other, we had to be thorough, we had to be honest with each other about any concerns we had in the matter, we had to trust each other and trust our motives, and we had to maintain our own integrity to make sure that we did not compromise our beliefs if they violated our conscience. None of those principles were betrayed in the course of the work of the subcommittee. We had differences of opinion and we still do have differences of opinion. We have had rough times through the subcommittee, and as we have gotten to the full committee, we have still had some rough times, but we are making it through in, again, a bipartisan fashion, that will reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.

We all agreed we had to work through it together, and we had to get some resolution of this matter so that the House of Representatives could get back to its work of legislating.

At the end, all of the members of the subcommittee agreed on the facts. There were differences as to the law, but eventually we came to one conclusion together. We found common ground for agreement, and that produced the statement of alleged violations to which Mr. Gingrich has admitted. We did this by sharing views, listening to each other, and keeping an open mind.

The subcommittee and I feel that we have come up with a fair result and a fair resolution of this matter. This is evidenced by the

fact that Mr. Gingrich has agreed that, in fact, this is an appropriate characterization of the charges against him-appropriate scope, appropriate seriousness all of which is evidenced by his admission to the Statement of Alleged Violation and his agreement that the sanction that the subcommittee is recommending is the appropriate sanction.

am reminded at the end of the deliberations of the subcommittee on the twenty-first of December, we had a brief delay and a court reporter who was sitting in the room and who had been in the room for much of the course of the work of the subcommittee over the past year. Took a moment on his own to tell us that he was quite proud of what he had seen and what he had witnessed in the course of that year. He said that his faith had been renewed in the deliberative process and that his faith had been renewed in the Congress.

That is the greatest compliment that I could ever have asked for in my work for the subcommittee.

It is in that spirit that the subcommittee has come forward and brought forth a Statement of Alleged Violation, brought forth its recommendation that we present today.

If I can, I would like to summarize the facts that form the basis for the subcommittee's findings:

The subcommittee found that in regard to two separate projects, Mr. Gingrich engaged in activity involving 501(c)(3) organizations that was substantially motivated by partisan political goals.

The subcommittee also found that Mr. Gingrich had provided the committee with material information about one of those projects that was inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable. The first project was a television program called the American Opportunities Workshop. It is many times referred to as AOW. It took place in May of 1990, and the idea for this project came from Mr. Gingrich and he was principally responsible for developing the message that was to be broadcast through this program.

AOW involved broadcasting a television program on subjects concerning governmental issues. Mr. Gingrich hoped, by using this program, he would be able to create a citizens' movement, and in doing this, workshops were set up throughout the country where people could gather and watch the program and where people could be recruited for this citizens' movement.

While the program was educational, the citizens' movement was also considered to be a tool to recruit nonvoters and people who were apolitical to the Republican Party.

The message that was used in AOW was considered to be one that would be particularly useful for Republicans and that could not be used for Democrats. The program, however, was deliberately free of any references to Republicans or any partisan politics because Mr. Gingrich believed that such references would dissuade the target audience of the program, that being nonvoters, from becoming involved.

AOW started off as a project of GOPAC. GOPAC is a political action committee which is dedicated to, among other things, achieving Republican control of the United States Congress. The methods GOPAC uses to achieve this goal include developing and articulating a political message and disseminating that message as widely

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as possible. One avenue of dissemination for GOPAC's message was AOW.

The program, however, consumed a great deal of GOPAC's resources. Because of this, Mr. Gingrich and others at GOPAC decided to transfer the American Opportunities Workshop to a 501(c)(3) organization in order to attract tax deductible funding.

The organization that was chosen was called the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation. It is referred to as ALOF. At the time the organization was used, it had been dormant. It had been formed years earlier by a Mr. Callaway and its activities had ceased for a number of years. It was revived in order to take over the AOW project and was using offices at GOPAC, using staff from GOPAC, and using GOPAC's facilities.

The program, when it moved to the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation, was known as American Citizens' Television. It had the same educational aspects as the American Opportunities Workshop and it had the same partisan political goals. The principal difference between the two was that ACTV, as it is known, used approximately $260,000 of tax deductible contributions to fund its operations.

ACTV broadcast three programs in 1990, and then ceased its operations. The last program was funded by an organization other than ALOF in the main, an organization that was chartered under 501(c)(4), because the program was deemed to be too political for a 501(c)(3) organization.

The second project utilizing 501(c)(3) organizations that Mr. Gingrich was involved in encompassed a college course that he taught which was called Renewing American Civilization. Mr. Gingrich developed the course as a subset of and a tool of a larger political and cultural movement which was also known as Renewing American Civilization. The goal of this movement, as stated by Mr. Gingrich, was the replacement of the welfare state with an opportunity society. A primary means of achieving this goal was the development of a message for the movement and dissemination of that message as widely as possible.

Mr. Gingrich intended that a Republican majority would be the heart of the movement and that the movement would professionalize the House Republicans. The methods that were described for achieving this included using the message of the movement to attract voters, resources and candidates to the Republican Party.

According to Mr. Gingrich in the course of his interviews with the subcommittee and with me, the course was, among other things, a primary and essential means for developing and disseminating this message. The core message of the movement and the course was that the welfare state had failed, that it could not be repaired, that it had to be replaced, and that it had to be replaced with an opportunity society based on what Mr. Gingrich called the five pillars of American civilization.

There was also a concentration on three areas of public policy. The same message that was used for the movement was also the same message used as Mr. Gingrich's campaign theme in 1993 and 1994, and Mr. Gingrich sought to have Republican candidates adopt the message as well in their campaigns.

In the context of political campaigns, Mr. Gingrich told the subcommittee that the term "welfare state" was used as a negative label for Democrats and that the term "opportunity society" was used as a positive label for Republicans.

As general chairman of GOPAC during this period of time, Mr. Gingrich had decided that GOPAC would use the Renewing American Civilization message as its political message and as its theme during 1993 and 1994. GOPAC, however, was having financial difficulties at this time. It could not afford to disseminate its political messages as it had in the past and it looked for other ways in which to do this.

GOPAC had a number of roles in regard to the course. For example, GOPAC personnel helped to develop, manage, promote and raise funds for the course. GOPAC charter members helped develop the idea to even teach the course and GOPAC charter members at one of its charter meetings developed some of the messages that would be used in the course and used for GOPAC.

According to Mr. Gingrich, GOPAC was better off as a result of the nationwide dissemination of the Renewing American Civilization message that was done by the course, because the course disseminated the message of the movement and of GOPAC without cost to GOPAC.

The course itself was taught at Kennesaw State College in 1993, and at Reinhardt College in 1994 and 1995. Each year the course consisted of 10 lectures and each lecture consisted of 4 hours of classroom instruction. Mr. Gingrich taught half of the lecture, 2 hours each week, and a co-professor, a professor from the college that it was at, taught the other 2 hours.

Students from each of the colleges, as well as people who were not students, would attend the lectures. Only Mr. Gingrich's portion of the lectures, his 20 hours, were disseminated via cable television, satellite broadcasts, videotapes and audiotapes, through the Renewing American Civilization project.

The 20 hours of lecture of the co-professors were not disseminated and were not distributed.

As with the American Opportunities Workshop and the American Citizens' Television project, the Renewing American Civilization project and course involved setting up workshops around the country where people would gather to watch the course. While the course was indeed educational, Mr. Gingrich intended that the workshops would be, among other things, a recruiting tool for GOPAC and for the Republican Party. The major costs for Renewing American Civilization as a course were for the dissemination of the lectures. There was very little money needed to be spent to actually put the course on itself.

This expense of dissemination of the message and of the lectures was paid for by tax deductible contributions that were made to various 501(c)(3) organizations that sponsored the course. Over the 3 years that the course was broadcast, approximately $1.2 million was spent on this project.

The Kennesaw State College Foundation sponsored the course the first year. All the funds raised were turned over to that foundation and dedicated exclusively for the use of the Renewing American Civilization course.

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