Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 30, 1992                   TAG: 9203300039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FOLEY: NO ONE'S ASKED ME TO RESIGN OVER SCANDALS

Appearing on CBS-TV's "Face the Nation," the Washington Democrat denied a report in The New York Times that House officials interfered with an investigation of the post office.

He said he plans this week to appoint a high-ranking career postal employee to take over the House's post office, succeeding Robert V. Rota, who resigned last week.

House sources said Saturday that Foley may act as early as Tuesday to name Michael Shinay, executive assistant to the U.S. postmaster general.

Foley also said he's asking appropriations subcommittee chairmen to review the perquisites of not only members of Congress but also those of officials of the executive branch to ensure they are appropriate.

Foley acknowledged there have been "a lot of rumors" on Capitol Hill that he has been asked to resign.

"None of them is true," he said. "Not a single person has approached me privately about stepping down."

Asked if he intended to be a candidate for speaker again in the next Congress, which will meet in January, he said: "Yes, I do."

Foley, a member of the House since 1965, was elected speaker in 1989 after Jim Wright of Texas resigned. Like all members of the House, Foley must face re-election in November.

Some members of Congress have reportedly grumbled that Foley didn't act aggressively enough to deal with irregularities at the post office and the bank, which allowed members to overdraw their accounts.

The Times reported in Sunday's editions that a federal grand jury looking into wrongdoing at the post office has focused on a one-month period last summer when top House officials intervened to keep the Capitol police from investigating possible embezzlements.

"That is not true," Foley said. "We cooperated in every way with the investigation of the post office."

Discussing the perks that have caused much consternation among voters, Foley said, "We're going to see to it that no member of Congress, either party, has any perquisites of office except those that are necessary to do the job."

He added that, "in fairness, we need to look at the executive branch as well," noting that some low-ranking officials use government limousines for trips to Capitol Hill.

Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" that he expects the management of Congress to be an issue in the presidential election.

"The president's got a long list of items he can cite as to why Congress ought to be fundamentally changed and only a small portion of that, I think turns on the question of the House bank," Cheney said.

He said he didn't think the issue had been neutralized by his own acknowledgement that he unknowingly had overdrafts at the House bank when he was a member of Congress.

Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., who has said he won't seek re-election, said on ABC-TV's "This Week with David Brinkley" that he opposes term limitations for members of Congress, partly because "it would lead to . . . an aristocracy of the staffs around here, which already have too much power."