WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The inspector-general of the House of Representatives will investigate recent allegations of sexual misconduct among congressional pages, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the chamber announced Wednesday.
"We expect the inspector-general to gather the facts and recommend the appropriate and necessary corrective actions to be taken by the House," Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner said in a joint statement on the matter.
Pages are high school juniors who serve as messengers for members of Congress and live in Washington for a semester or summer. Two Republican lawmakers have resigned from the House Page Board, which oversees the program, to protest what they said was lax oversight after two pages were dismissed from the program for having oral sex in public areas of their Capitol Hill dorm.
"It wasn't kissing and hugging -- let me put it that way," Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Florida, said last week. "It did go beyond that. There were not only a young male and female involved, but there were also observers and other page participants who were, let's say, enablers."
The page program came under intense scrutiny last year when Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, was forced to resign after the disclosure of his sexually suggestive e-mails to male pages. The House Ethics Committee later found that some people who knew about Foley's questionable communications chose to "remain willfully ignorant" rather than confront the matter.
No members of Congress are involved in the current controversy, and House Clerk Lorraine Miller, who administers the programs, said the students involved were dismissed. E-mail to a friend 
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