August 3, 1994 - Part 1
August 3, 1994 - Part 1
(09:40:18) The CHAIRMAN, Yes, Senator Shelby. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR SHELBY Senator SHELBY. I understand what you want to do as far as, and you certainly can do it as the Chairman. I understand all that. But would not the best witness be Ms. Hanson, herself, if she were shown that video and if she could elucidate on what that nod 3 meant, I mean, I think that would be, and the Committee took a little time watching that. It probably would not take 5 minutes. The CHAIRMAN. Well- Senator SHELBY. Sometime today or tomorrow. The CHAIRMAN. I am open to suggestions from all Members. I have not seen us do anything in 5 minutes around here, including say good morning, so I think it would be Senator SHELBY. But I think it is a very important point. The CHAIRMAN. It is an important point, and I agree with you on that, but I think maybe the orderly way to do this, the way we started out, we deposed everybody, and people testify under oath, and she would have the opportunity to do that and see what her response is. And then I think we will circulate that to everybody and we can make a judgment. I think we can have the information and then decide exactly what it amounts to and what we want to do with it. Senator SHELBY. When the lawyers would be deposing here, I assume they would be showing her the video? The CHAIRMAN. Absolutely. Senator SHELBY. What did you mean by the body language? The CHAIRMAN. Exactly. Senator DAMATO. Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Senator DAmato. OPENING COMMENTS OF SENATOR DAMATO Senator DAMATO. I have absolutely no problem with the manner in which you described giving her the opportunity and her counsels to review with her counsel. I am sure they already know and they have watched and heard about this. But I do think we should, at the very least, give her the opportunity to decide whether or not she wants to come in. We may decide, after the depositions, that we think it is appropriate or not, but I think if she thinks she wants that chance to do it, she certainly should be given it, and that is the best evidence to have her here and to respond. But certainly the initial, if we can get an initial contact and the time to get her deposed and if her counsel is ready to bring her in here without being deposed, why that is another matter, so maybe we should address that question immediately and have staff begin the preliminary contacts to see whether or not we can set up a time pretty quickly to do that. The CHAIRMAN. Well I am going to give guidance to the Committee staff to be in touch with Ms. Hanson to arrange to get her response to what took place in that exchange, and once we have that, we can evaluate it. She may confirm what he has said. If she has a different recollection, we will have that and certainly if she asks to come back on that point, I think we would have to respect that desire. Senator SHELBY. Mr. Chairman, as I recall, I want to review the transcript because I think she was asked about that, whether or not an exchange occurred. Obviously the assistance of -the video tape may help, but I would just urge, and I think what you have described as a process sounds reasonable enough here, but I hope 4 these hearings do not sort of become tantamount to the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, at some point here, we have got to move on. Arid then I can see where Mr. Altman, because there were a couple of other people sitting at that table, would want those people deposed to see what they had to say about the conversation. This can just go on interminably. So I would hope that we would try to discern what you can and then try to limit this back and forth. Senator BOND. Mr. Chairman, clearly it would be expeditious to set up a deposition as you and Senator DAmato have described. I would urge you to do that, and then make the determination based on what is said at the deposition whether Ms. Hanson wishes to come back to answer before the full Committee or whether we feel we need to have her back. Clearly, we do not need to ask all the others, but I would agree with the procedure that you have outlined. It seems to me only reasonable since this is a critical point. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. Well we will proceed in that fashion and we will begin now so that we get a timely response to the question. Mr. Secretary, former colleague of many years in this body, we are pleased to have you here. I am going to ask you now to stand and take the oath. [Witness sworn.] The CHAIRMAN. Now it is my understanding that you have a statement that you want to deliver and make it part of the record, and we would like to hear from you now. TESTIMONY OF LLOYD M. BENTSEN, SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Secretary BENTSEN. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, Senator D'Amato, Members of the Committee, I would like to cover a number of points this morning. For organization's sake, I want to present my testimony in four parts. First, I want to describe my relationship to the Oversight of the Resolution Trust Corporation and how my office operates, I want to next address my recollection of events. I would like to also discuss the steps I have taken over the past few months. And, finally, I want to cover the conclusions which have been reached and the actions that I will take. Knowing that the responsibilities of a Cabinet Officer are different from those of a U.S. Senator. I put two systems in place when I came to Treasury.