YOU'LL GO TO JAIL, BUT CONGRESS-PERSON IS EXEMPT!

"During a break in last Saturday's defiant testimony from Clarence Thomas, Sen. Edward Kennedy remarked on the bitter aftertaste that the experience would leave with the nominee. `What if he gets on the court now?' the Massachusetts Democrat asked. `What will he think about Congress?'" From a Wall Street Journal news article, Wednesday, October 16, 1991.

Sen. Kennedy asks a good question. What should any of us think of the miserable institution that the modern U.S. Congress has become? President Bush made an important speech last Friday. It bears repeating here. Considering the subject, the President's remarks show a significant measure of restraint.

President Bush's remarks of Friday, October 25, 1991

Our long and sturdy tradition of tolerance enables us to test new ideas through public debate. When Congress considers issues no one minds a tough and honest discussion. We expect it. And by the same token, we want and expect our free press to look beneath events, take accounts of people's motives, and ask tough questions rather than numbly repeating partisan propaganda or baseless rumor.

I served in Congress. I have great respect for Congress. I know the incredible pressure and difficulty of working there. But public faith in Congress is absolutely vital for our form of government. I offer these suggestions then in a spirit of constructive criticism.

Congress ought to follow the same laws that it imposes on everyone else. More than a dozen laws apply to the executive branch but not to Congress. Most of these laws apply to everyone in America except members of Congress. Congress does not have to comply with the Equal Pay Act of 1963. It does not have to follow Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a title that prohibits sexual harassment and discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. It doesn't have to obey the provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. I would wager that the American people do not know that Congress has exempted itself from the sexual harassment laws private employers and the executive branch must obey.

We've heard choruses of criticism against the evils of sexual harassment and we've received good suggestions about how to become more vigilant about this insidious crime. But these lessons should not be wasted on the men and women who drafted the law.

For, you see, when Congress exempts itself from the very laws that it writes for others, it strikes at its own reputation and shatters public confidence in government. These exemptions encourage special interest groups to press then for reckless regulations, knowing that Congress might adopt such laws if it won't feel their sting. This practice creates the appearance and reality of a privileged class of rulers who stand above the law.

Our founders thought it preposterous preposterous to suggest that such behavior would ever take place in America. We did a little research. Federalist Paper Number 57 asserts that elected officials, and here's the exact language, ". . . can make no law which will not have full operation on themselves and their friends as well as on the great mass of society." The people have begun to speak now. And today I call upon Congress to take a simple step toward increasing public confidence, submit to the laws it imposes on others . . . and do so by the year's end. There's a lot of plain people up there on the Hill trying to make a living. And people who work for Congress ought to have the same rights and legal remedies as those who work for anyone else.

I support the bipartisan effort . . . to trim this overgrown thicket of committees and subcommittees. . . . Senator Boren [D.-Okla.] framed the matter when he said this: "No one doubts that Congress is in trouble as an institution. In poll after poll, Americans describe Congress" these are his words "as inefficient, unresponsive, wasteful and compromised by the way it finances campaigns."

I support the efforts of the congressional reformers. A system originally designed to help Congress do the public's business has turned into a machine so complex and bewildering that the public doesn't understand it. Many members of Congress do not fully understand it. Only the specialists and lobbyists can pick their way through the labyrinth.

Our founders handed down to us the finest system of government in history, one in which the legislature and the executive do battle as part of our system of checks and balances; but we must remember who is servant and who is master.

President George Bush