By PHILIP SHENON and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: April 15, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 14 - Ten former members of Congress, all Republicans, joined in a letter to the House leadership on Thursday to say they believed that revisions in House ethics rules this year were an "obvious action to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay" from investigation. They said the changes needed to be reversed "to restore public confidence in the People's House."
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The letter may be another blow to Mr. DeLay, who is under investigation by a grand jury in his home state, Texas, and is facing growing calls from fellow Republicans to answer accusations involving his financial ties to lobbyists and his management of his political and campaign committees.
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The letter was not the only development Thursday with possible implications for the majority leader. Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, asked the House Resources Committee to examine the work of Jack Abramoff, a longtime lobbyist friend of Mr. DeLay, in representing the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific.
In 1995, Mr. Abramoff, with Mr. DeLay's help, persuaded the House to defeat a bill that would have stripped the Marianas of their exemption from federal minimum wage and immigration laws. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Miller said, more than 85 members of Congress and Congressional aides, including Mr. DeLay, traveled to the Marianas; Mr. Miller and others have cited news reports suggesting that lobbyists may have paid for the trips, a possible violation of House rules.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/politics/15delay.html