Rep. Byron Cook, one of the first House members accused of giving full-time benefits to part-time employees, named a House subcommittee "to clarify the state’s employment laws and House Rules for both employees of the House Civil Practices Committee as well as all House Capitol, District and Committee staff employees..."

Cook, chairman of the House Committee on Civil Practices, pegged the investigation to differences over a memo on the scandal from Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston. He says it's accurate, but says aides to House Speaker Tom Craddick have called it incorrect.

The subcommittee he named will find out what's right and what's wrong and go from there. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, will chair that group, joined by Reps. Jerry Madden, R-Garland, Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, and Robert Talton, R-Pasadena.

Craddick has asked Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, to investigate the issue. Phillips heads the House Committee on General Investigating & Ethics. Some members of Cook's committee wanted to leave it there, but he wouldn't recognize their challenges, instead forming his new subcommittee and then moving on to other business.

Cook started his committee's meeting with a statement:

A matter has also recently arisen that not only encompasses our committee, but the entire House of Representatives which I want to address.

Beginning post session 2007, there have been formal and informal inquiries by Speaker’s office regarding the employment status of certain House employees.

Though I firmly believe the agenda behind these inquiries is political and in my case, in retaliation to my challenging the Speaker on an appropriation he was holding up regarding state funding for the Texas State Railroad in my district, I also feel the ethical and legal questions posed as to the benefit status of state employees must receive fair scrutiny rather than witch-hunts in the press.

I am particularly disappointed that the Speaker's office has engaged in a wholesale effort to mislead members of the press, a few of whom have bought into a biased, one-sided version of events. As time goes on, additional media scrutiny has demonstrated that the long-standing tradition in the House of using on-call employees, particularly those with certain professional skills and expertise, is practiced as much by those who support the Speaker as by those who oppose him.

Compounding these press articles’ false and discriminatory portrayal of this issue, Speaker’s office and our own House Administration Committee have made conflicting statements with little regard for their effect on the process and the self-esteem of the men and women who are serving our legislature in a dedicated, hard working and ethical manner.

I also firmly believe that all House members take their oath to serve the laws of the state and rules of the House seriously, and that for the Speaker to imply otherwise without assuming his accountability is shocking as he himself is ultimately responsible for approval of House employee practices including on-call employees, here again, a common practice in the House for many years.

Representative Jessica Farrar has written a memo to her democratic colleagues that outlines the laws and House Rules for legislative employees. I thought her memo did a thorough job of explaining an employee’s status especially the on-call employees who serve both our committees and district offices. The Speaker’s office said the memo is “filled with inaccuracies,” therefore, I believe it is necessary that I appoint a subcommittee to clarify the state’s employment laws and House Rules for both employees of the House Civil Practices Committee as well as all House Capitol, District and Committee staff employees… as the laws and House rules should be the same.

The subcommittee will consist of Representative Strama as Chair; with Representative Madden, Talton and Raymond serving as members. I will ask the subcommittee to prepare a report in a timely manner and respond back to this Committee and our entire House Membership.

And Farrar's memo is attached.