Special interests paid nearly $600,000 last year for speeches by a half-dozen top leaders in the House. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the tax-writing committee, took in the most with $285,000, according to financial disclosure reports made public Tuesday. Rank-and-file members shared in the speechmaking windfall to supplement their $89,500 salaries. All told, House members accepted millions of dollars for speaking and writing, and many got more for talking than the average family earns in a year. The flow of speaking fees, mostly from special interests that ranged from colleges to banks, was hardly slowed by the allegations of financial improprieties that led last year to the resignations of Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, and Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., the majority whip. Wright's successor, Speaker Thomas S. Foley, D-Wash., reported he received $32,000 in honoraria. Coelho's successor, Rep. William Gray, D-Pa., claimed $164,098. Foley's successor as majority leader, Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., reported $34,500. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., was the top talk-for-pay lawmaker outside the leadership, with $160,517. House members are allowed to keep honoraria equivalent to 30 percent of their salaries and most give what is left to charity. Rostenkowski traditionally spreads the excess among churches and schools in his hometown of Chicago. Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia handed over $29,304 of his $67,491 in fees to the Atlanta zoo. The disclosure statements of most House members were made public Tuesday, although some lawmakers were granted extensions. Senators' reports will be released Wednesday. Speaking and writing fees were not the only source of outside income for members of the House, which has dozens of millionaires. One of the wealthiest, Rep. Amory Houghton, R-N.Y., an heir to the Corning Glass Works fortune, received $127,000 last year for managing family trusts. Rep. Don Sundquist, R-Tenn., listed dividends of $5,000 to $15,000 from his stake in a popular barbecue restaurant, Red, Hot `n Blue, in Arlington, Va. Rep. Ronald Machtley, R-R.I., earned interest by lending money to his own campaign committee. Rep. Dante Fascell, D-Fla., who heads the Foreign Affairs Committee, pocketed a $24,000 salary from his law firm, $11,913 in Social Security benefits and as much as $15,000 from his stake in a thoroughbred horse breeding operation. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is under investigation by the House ethics committee because of his association with a male prostitute, was paid between $15,000 and $50,000 as an advance on a book he is writing. Rep. Ben Jones, D-Ga., an actor who played on the old ``Dukes of Hazzard'' show, received a $10,625 advance for his autobiography. Another ex-actor, Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, earned $26,219 in royalties from his tour on the ``Love Boat'' series. Rep. J. Howard Coble, R-N.C., won $600 in a congressional pinball tournament and donated it to charities in his district. Rep. Curtis Weldon, R-Pa., who once helped extinguish a fire in a House office building, was reimbursed for expenses of 19 speaking trips to fire-fighting organizations in 16 states last year. He received no fees for those speeches. Weldon is a founder of the congressional fire-prevention caucus. Rep. Chester Atkins, D-Mass., earned $17,307 as chairman of the Massachusetts State Democratic Committee. Rep. Stan Parris, R-Va., sold a 1948 Chrysler roadster for something between $15,000 and $50,000. Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, D-Colo., earned nearly $14,000 designing Indian jewelry. Rep. Herbert Callahan, D-Ala., was paid $12,000 in director's fees from the Finch Companies. Although Democrats, who control the House, were paid the most for their speechmaking, Republicans shared in the wealth. Republican Leader Robert Michel of Illinois reported $49,300. Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, who heads the House Republican Conference, was paid $31,000. As part of a bill raising their government salaries, House members agreed that 1990 will be the last year they will receive honoraria. Senators will allow themselves lower government salaries than House members after this year but will keep their speaking fees. In addition to their speaking fees and other honoraria, members of Congress and most other federal officials are required to disclose their assets, not including their homes; their investments, most liabilities and gifts. The forms require that values be listed only by broad category. For example, a multimillion-dollar holding is reported only as worth more than $250,000. Some members are more precise. Rep. William Natcher, D-Ky., whose seniority and Appropriations Committee position make him one of the most powerful House members, listed no speaking fees, no gifts, no liabilities, no investment transactions and no membership in any organization. He listed nine properties valued at $144,978 from which he collected $4,200 in rent, and the $4,131 savings account that earned $212 interest. Not all are so lucky in their finances. Rep. Tommy F. Robinson, R-Ark., who switched parties last year, listed among his liabilities more than $250,000 he owes Jerral W. Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Jones' daughter left a $60,000-a-year job on Robinson's staff last year after the congressman and Jones had a falling out over Robinson's plans to run for governor. Rep. Doug Barnard, D-Ga., reported assets of between zero and $5,000 with no liabilities. On the other hand, Gephardt, who sold rental homes in Missouri last year, had no liabilities but assets of as much as $915,000. Rep. William Green, R-N.Y., an heir to the Grand Union food stores, reported one of the highest 1989 incomes among House members, at least $507,857 and perhaps as much as $1.26 million. His campaign committee returned to him between $100,000 and $250,000 of personal funds he had invested in his 1984 re-election effort.
