Hastert entered Congress in 1987 with a internet price of no more than $270,000. Much of this improve in internet price was the consequence of various real-estate investments during Hastert’s time in Congress (together with the controversial land deal a number of miles from the proposed Prairie Parkway site). In 2006, Hastert grew to become embroiled in controversy over his championing of a $207 million earmark (inserted within the 2005 omnibus highway invoice) for the Prairie Parkway, a proposed expressway working via his district. In 2004, Hoyer referred to as upon Hastert to initiate a House Ethics Committee investigation into statements by Representative Nick Smith, a Republican of Michigan, who stated that teams and lawmakers had supplied help for his son’s campaign for Congress in alternate for Smith’s assist of the Medicare bill. Hastert was key to the passage in November 2003 of key Medicare legislation which created Medicare Part D, a prescription-drug benefit. In October 2004, the House Ethics Committee admonished DeLay for pressuring Smith on the Medicare prescription-drug invoice, however said that DeLay did not break the law or House ethics guidelines. When the United States House Committee on Ethics advisable a sequence of reprimands in opposition to Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Hastert fired committee Chairman Joel Hefley, (R-CO), as well as committee members Kenny Hulshof, (R-MO) and Steve LaTourette, (R-OH).
However, public documents only named Ingemunson, who was the Kendall County Republican Party chairman and Hastert’s private legal professional and longtime friend. In a committee assertion, Kirk Fordham, who was Foley’s chief of employees until 2005, stated that he had alerted Scott B. Palmer, Hastert’s chief of staff, to Foley’s inappropriate advances toward congressional pages in 2002 or 2003, asking congressional leadership to intervene. On October 27, 2005, Hastert grew to become the first Speaker to writer a weblog. Financial disclosure paperwork indicate that Hastert made a fortune from land deals throughout his time in Congress. The Sunlight Foundation accused Hastert of failing to disclose that the development of the highway would benefit a land funding that Hastert and his spouse made in nearby land in 2004 and 2005. Hastert took an unusually lively role advancing the invoice, even though it was opposed by a majority of area residents and by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Four months later Hastert offered the land for a 500% revenue.
A spokesman for Hastert later denied the claims, relating them to the Jennifer Aniston-Brad Pitt breakup. In December 2006, the House Ethics Committee determined that Hastert and different congressional leaders have been “willfully ignorant” in responding to early warnings of the Mark Foley congressional page scandal, but didn’t violate any House guidelines. On 1 December 2009, the public Petitions Committee determined to seek a gathering between a government minister and the petitioners, as well as enquire as to whether the federal government may consider establishing an advisory committee of interested parties. Hastert additionally said that he couldn’t recall conversations with Boehner and Reynolds, and that he did not study of Foley’s conduct till late September 2006, when the affair turned public. Later that month, John Boehner of Ohio defeated Mike Pence of Indiana in a 168-27 vote of the House Republican Conference election to turn out to be minority leader for the 110th Congress. The remarks enraged Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, who said that Hastert’s feedback have been “completely unthinkable for a pacesetter in his place” and demanded an immediate apology.