Republican Leadership Puts Politics Before Safety of Pages

In my 21 years as a Member of the House Page Board, every decision has been made on not just a bi-partisan basis but on a non-partisan basis, with our main concern always being the safety and well-being of the young teenagers who serve the U.S. House as pages.

I was outraged to learn that the House Republican leadership kept to itself the knowledge of Mr. Foley’s despicable behavior toward the House Pages.

I am now equally outraged to learn that Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced today that there will be changes in the policies of the House Page program. Once again, I was not informed of the meeting today, nor was I consulted in any way about any proposed changes.

And once again, the House Republican leadership is following the same pattern of unilateral decision-making that caused this problem in the first place in the Mark Foley issue. Speaker Hastert’s announcement this afternoon is yet another example of the House Republican leadership being more concerned with finding political cover for themselves than with the safety and well-being of the House pages.