Bush Signs Act to Revise House Page Board

With little fanfare, President Bush signed an act today revising the House of Representatives Page Board, which is responsible for the oversight of the teenage congressional page program that was at the center of last year’s Mark Foley scandal. The board will now include a member representing the pages’ parents as well as a member representing former pages.  ABC News’ "The Blotter" first reported on the sexually explicit communications between then-Congressman Mark Foley and former congressional pages after being contacted by numerous former pages.

Read the Full Coverage of the Foley Internet Scandal on "The Blotter." Following Foley’s subsequent resignation, numerous members of the page board were questioned about what they knew and when about Foley’s behavior. THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS Foley Cruising in His BMW; Another Dorm Visit in 2000 Discretion Advised Read the Instant Messages That Forced Foley to Resign Click Here to Check Out the Latest Brian Ross Investigates Webcast on the Homepage. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., Chairman of the House Page Board, was criticized in the House Ethics Committee report on the Foley matter for not being more aggressive after he first learned of over-friendly e-mails between Foley and a former page. Shimkus and then-Clerk of the House Jeff Trandahl confronted Foley over the e-mails, which were not sexually explicit in nature, but the matter was never shared with the other page board members.  Foley later resigned after more sexually explicit instant messages were reported by ABC News. Discretion Advised: Read an excerpt from the instant messages that forced Foley to resign. Sixty-six high school juniors and seniors serve as Congressional pages during school semesters and over summer break. The pages live in a dormitory near the Capitol and spend the majority of their day functioning as messengers, delivering legislative material between Capitol offices.