August 1, 2001

Dear Colleague:

For the reasons set forth below, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has determined to dismiss in full the complaint filed against you by Representative Peter Deutsch.

On July 16, 2001, Representative Deutsch submitted to the Committee information offered as a complaint in which you were named as the respondent. The information alleged that you "may have used official government resources for political purposes in violation of federal law, House rules, and the Code of Official Conduct." This allegation was based on a July 15, 2001, New York Times article regarding certain identifying information about military absentee voters obtained by staff of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel, of which you were then Chairman, during the pendency of the vote count in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

By letter of July 19, 2001, we notified you that we had jointly determined that the information submitted by Representative Deutsch met the requirements of Committee Rule 16 as to what constitutes a complaint. As we notified you at the time, this was a determination only as to the formal sufficiency of the complaint.

Following this determination, we, as Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee, jointly gathered additional information concerning the alleged conduct forming the basis of Representative Deutsch’s complaint. We greatly appreciate your cooperation in this information gathering process.

Based on the information obtained in this matter, it appears that, during the pendency of the vote count in Florida: 1) you did not forward or otherwise provide officially obtained identifying information on military absentee voters to anyone for political or campaign purposes; 2) you did not direct or instruct your subcommittee staff, and further did not suggest to your subcommittee staff, that officially obtained identifying information on military absentee voters be forwarded or otherwise provided to anyone for political or campaign purposes; and 3) you were not aware that officially obtained identifying information on military absentee voters had been forwarded by a member of your staff to an official of the Republican Party of Florida. The Committee therefore dismisses the complaint in full.

Notwithstanding the complete dismissal of the complaint, however, we must note that, based on the information obtained in this matter, it appears to be beyond dispute that, whether knowingly or not, a member of your subcommittee staff did copy to an official of the Republican Party of Florida e-mails containing identifying information on certain military absentee voters. Even if the information was not knowingly copied to a party official, the copying of such information to the official was clearly contrary to the general prohibition against the use of official resources for political or campaign purposes. The Committee will consider further appropriate inquiry regarding the staff member.

Sincerely,