Pelosi Orders Investigation Into House's Page Program

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday called for "an immediate and thorough" review of the supervision and security surrounding the congressional page program.

"As a mother and a grandmother, nothing is more important to me than the safety and security of our House pages," Pelosi said.

Pelosi's action came one day after GOP Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville and Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia resigned from the board that sets the policy for the page program, which includes about 70 high school juniors.

Brown-Waite pointed to what she says are recent incidents of "serious criminal acts" involving pages and "inappropriate sexual indiscretions between the students," about which she says board members had been "kept in the dark."

None of the incidents involved members of Congress or other adults. The criminal charges were related to shoplifting.

In resigning, Brown-Waite accused Pelosi and other Democrats of paying only "lip-service" to reforming the page program in the wake of last year's scandals involving inappropriate e-mail by then-Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach with male pages.

As media coverage continued to build Friday about the resignations, including CNN's self-dubbed "Pages Gone Wild" report, Pelosi issued a statement. She said that because of a zero tolerance policy, "the House pages involved in each of these serious incidents were immediately expelled and sent home," Pelosi said.

Even so, Pelosi said the Page Board must undertake a review of the adequacy of the supervision and security at the page dorm.

Democratic damage control wasn't limited to Pelosi.

Earlier Friday, Rep. Dale Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the page board, said in a statement, "Since April, the Board has held five meetings to examine and reform the program's procedures and policies."

Despite the expulsions, the Page Board, he said, was not satisfied with "the manner and timeliness in which it was informed of these actions."

On Nov. 9, he said, "The Board unanimously agreed that the Clerk of the House should immediately and simultaneously inform all Members in cases where pages were dismissed from the program."

Brown-Waite spokesman Charlie Keller responded to Pelosi's call for an immediate and thorough review by saying: "That's great. That's the point of what we're doing here."

"If she Pelosi actually follows through ... then this worked. That's the whole reason for this," he said of Brown-Waite's resignation.