Clarification Appended

Ted Van Der Meid, one-time chief counsel and director of floor operations to then-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), has joined the law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. [IMGCAP(1)]

Van Der Meid will specialize in ethics, Congressional investigations and compliance issues for the firm. It is an area of expertise Van Der Meid honed after nearly two decades on Capitol Hill, which included a stint as staff director and chief counsel to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in the 1990s, when the panel investigated then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Years later, Van Der Meid was on the other end of an ethics investigation when he testified under oath in late 2006 about his knowledge and the Speaker’s office’s involvement regarding then-Rep. Mark Foley’s (R-Fla.) communications with teenage male pages. The panel concluded that no one in the Speaker’s office was at fault in the matter.

Van Der Meid’s new gig will reunite him with firm partner Randy Evans, who served as outside counsel to both Gingrich and Hastert. Prior to the Speaker’s office and ethics committee, Van Der Meid also served as counsel to former Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).

Child Care Concerns. When they passed the legislative branch appropriations bill in committee last week, House Members earmarked $1 million for yet-to-be determined improvements to the House Child Care Center.

In March, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) asked House Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard to find ways to eliminate the waiting list for the center. Beard hired an outside consultant to study potential accommodations, and that report is forthcoming, according to CAO spokesman Jeff Ventura.

“The $1 million has been earmarked to execute the anticipated recommendations from that study,” Ventura said.

Day-to-day operations of the center are funded through tuition charged to parents, which ranges from $832 to $1,175 a month, depending on the age of the child.

The Senate also is taking steps to improve its day care facility.

On Thursday, a bill that would allow the Secretary of the Senate to transfer funds from the sale of the chamber’s holiday ornaments to the Senate Employee Child Care Center was sent to the White House. The money generated from the sale is expected to bring in about 4 percent of the center’s overall revenue and go toward scholarships and supplies.

— Susan Davis and Elizabeth Brotherton

Correction: June 18
The second Morning Business item quoted a spokesman for the House Chief Administrative Officer referring to an “earmarked” $1 million in the legislative branch appropriations bill to fund the House Child Care Center. The spokesman clarified Monday that the money is not earmarked, but rather “available funding.”