July 29, 1994 - Part 3
July 29, 1994 - Part 3
(13:20:30) Mr. MONROE. As I said before, Senator, we cannot conclusively rule out that Whitewater could have played some role, What we can say right now is that we uncovered no evidence that during this period of time that Mr. Foster raised any concern regarding that particular issue. Senator DODD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Dodd. Senator Gramm. Senator GRAMM. Mr. Chairman, let me first thank our witnesses, You guys have a very tough job. I'm glad you do it and it's obvious to me you do it well and I think the whole country is the beneficiary. I think the subject matter you're covering is one that we are all confident that basically a good job was done in. Mr. Chairman, I just want to take my time to respond to several comments that were made earlier about why are we here, why are we on this subject, and what is wrong with this process that we're talking about the death of a human being in very tragic circumstances. I would like to remind my colleagues that we are here as a result of a resolution by Senator Mitchell that every Member of the Republican Party in the Senate voted against, We're here as a result of the scoping of this bearing in such a way that this is one. of only three areas that we're allowed to look at. It is not an area that I am the least bit interested in. Now, I want to ask the next panel at some point, or I'm confident my colleagues who are more confident than I am will do it, I want to ask them whether or not they were interfered with in their investigation. That's the only relevant point, it seems to me in this whole subject matter, that we ought to be looking at. Second, I'd like to say that I'm not aware that our side of the aisle had anything to do with establishing what was going to come the first, I think people could argue on the other side of Capitol that the decision to bring the White House Counsel, who was not even on the scene when most of these things that we're supposed to be looking at occurred, to testify first, at least started the hearing with a very high degree of boredom and perhaps that was the objective. I don't think that was the case here ,but the point I want to make is we're not on this subject because anybody on this side of the aisle said we should be on this subject, We're on this subject because it is one of three areas we're limited to by a resolution that no one on this side of the aisle voted for and I in not aware that anybody on this side of the aisle said, let's talk about this subject matter first. I think it is clear from the opening statements that were made that this is not an area of any real interest to this Committee. And I certainly am sensitive, as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and some on to this side of the aisle have expressed, to the sensitivity of this issue for the human beings that were involved. I just thought, Mr. Chairman, it was important to make this point. The CHAIRmAN. Senator Sasser. Senator SASSER. Mr. Chairman, I think the original D'Amato amendment, number 1775, states on page 2 the Park Police investigation into the death of Vince Foster. Now, perhaps our friends on the other side of the aisle didn't vote for this particular resolution under which this Committee is being guided today, but to say that our friends on the other side of the aisle did not want to look into the death of Vince Foster imp] because they did not vote for the Majority Leader's resolution, I think A is a misleading statement because clearly in Senator D'Amato's resolution, be's looking into -the Park Police investigation into the death of Vince Foster. Now, 'that's a matter of record. Senator GRAMM. Mr. Chairman, if I can respond-and I'll be very -brief-the point is that the D'Amato resolution led us into the whole Whitewater/Madison area. It covered the whole waterfront, and were we operating under that resolution, we would be able to get into a wider variety of things that are of interest to us Senator SASSER. But, Mr. Chairman, the point is were we operat- ing under that resolution, we'd have the Park Police here today and these gentlemen here looking into Vince Foster-the cir- surrounding his death. Whereas Senator GRAMM. We might or we might not, Mr. Chairman. .-We're limited now to on ly three areas. My point is that our Demo- cratic colleagues who are asking what we are doing here, what a terrible thing it is that the resolution limits us to three areas, were the Majority that made the decision as to where we started this hearing process, That's my point. 58