Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992 TAG: 9203130203
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Adding to the drama, House Sergeant at Arms Jack Russ abruptly resigned without giving a reason. He had been in charge of the bank's operations and came under severe criticism for the overdraft problem.
Before the vote, lawmakers offered several explanations for taking advantage of a system that let them overdraw their accounts for years on end without interest or penalty.
Among them was Rep. Charles Hatcher, D-Ga., who said in an Associated Press interview that he overdrew his account as many as 780 times over 39 months. "As I understood the rule," he said, he was permitted to overdraw his account by the amount of his next paycheck.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., disclosed he had written an estimated 160 bad checks in the past three years. In a press release, he cited his practice of donating regularly to a scholarship fund for needy students in his district.
It was a wrenching night for the House as nervous Democrats and Republicans alike contemplated the political fallout when their constituents learned the extent of the check-kiting practice.
Russ' sudden resignation came moments before debate opened on disclosure of the names. He had been sharply criticized by the House ethics committee, which investigated the bank scandal, for misusing his position by "cashing checks with insufficient funds to cover them" and for poorly managing the bank.
The political sensitivity of the issue was made clear in the Senate, which put itself on record saying the uproar was confined to the House, and that no similar Senate bank exists - or would in the future. Several senators complained that constituents were accusing them of writing bad checks.
House Democratic leaders initially had hoped to limit public disclosure to only the 24 worst offenders, but Republicans cried foul, and demanded a vote on the issue.
That led to a full-scale retreat by House Speaker Thomas Foley and other Democrats, who agreed late in the day to go along with fuller disclosure.
Rep. Charlie Wilson, emerging from the Democratic meeting Thursday, said, "It's politically untenable to resist disclosure at this time." The Texas Democrat said he had written between 75 and 85 bad checks.
After a day of backstage negotiations, the House appeared poised to vote first for public disclosure of the 24 worst offenders, followed quickly by a second vote for releasing all the names.
That would require release of the first 24 names - 19 current House members and five former - within 10 days. The fuller list would be released shortly afterwards. The bank itself was closed late last year, after the furor erupted.
Some lawmakers, including Hatcher and Hunter, also began making individual announcements, giving their own versions before the lists were released.
And Rep. Clyde Holloway, R-La., blamed bad House bank record-keeping and bad communications for about a dozen overdrafts.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.