Panel to examine Arizona lawmaker's trip with former pages

WASHINGTON — The House committee looking into allegations that former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., had improper contact with male former pages has been asked by lawmakers overseeing the page program to look into allegations involving a second lawmaker, House sources said Tuesday.

Page Board members sought the review after news reports last week that the Justice Department had opened a preliminary inquiry into a camping trip that Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took with male former pages in 1996. That report sparked a conference call Monday among board members.

But because the Page Board, which consists of three House members and two senior House officials, cannot investigate members of Congress, the matter was referred to the House ethics panel.

A number of concerns about alleged improprieties in page matters have been referred to the committee since Foley abruptly resigned from the House on Sept. 29 after ABC News asked him about salacious instant messages he had sent to a former page, House leadership aides said. But such concerns have involved allegations that Foley's actions had been covered up or improperly handled, not that other House members might have engaged in inappropriate behavior.

"I haven't been contacted by anyone on this matter, but if I am, I will fully cooperate with the appropriate authorities," Kolbe said in a statement.

Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, will retire this year.

The event that captured the Page Board's attention was a camping trip Kolbe took with two former pages and others in 1996, an outing first reported by NBC News and now under review by the Justice Department. One law-enforcement official cautioned that the inquiry is based on allegations from an unidentified source that have not been substantiated. The allegations involve Kolbe's behavior toward one of the former pages, the official said.

The three-day Grand Canyon trip also included Kolbe staff members; Kolbe's sister, Beth; and National Park Service employees, a Kolbe spokeswoman said last week. She denied improprieties occurred.

Meanwhile, Foley's attorney said Tuesday that the former congressman, who said he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic clergyman when he was a teen, will reveal the man's identity to the Archdiocese of Miami. No criminal charges can be filed because the statute of limitations on sexual assault has expired.

Material from The Associated Press

is included in this report.