[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 13 (Thursday, February 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             A SACRED TRUST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Kansas [Mrs. Meyers] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MEYERS of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce a resolution of 
inquiry in an effort to obtain factual answers to a few of the 
questions raised by a complicated web of prominent persons, events, and 
federally insured or licensed institutions. This growing embarrassment 
is now known simply as Whitewater.
  As you know, a resolution of inquiry is a mechanism available to 
Members under the Rules of the House of Representatives to obtain 
information from the President of the United States and heads of 
executive departments. According to long-standing practice is this 
body, this resolution is considered privileged because it has special 
standing in the legislative process. We have protected that privilege 
by requesting factual answers to specific questions, not opinions, from 
the President.
  My fellow cosponsors and I do not take this step lightly. We do have 
a constitutional obligation, however, to the American people to 
discover the truth--good or bad--and hold our public figures 
responsible for their actions. To that end, we must use the avenues 
provided to Members under the rules of the House to obtain facts 
otherwise made unavailable to us.
  Mr. Speaker, as ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee, I 
have been working to investigate the activities of Capital Management 
Services, Inc., a specialized small business investment company [SSBIC] 
in Arkansas. The information we have obtained, to date, on the 
operations of this federally licensed entity has been extraordinarily 
disturbing. However, the information we have received has lead to more 
questions than answers.
  Unfortunately, the executive branch has not been forthcoming in 
responding to requests for information from certain Members of 
Congress. This stonewalling has provided fertile ground for sowing the 
seeds of intrigue and speculation. Adding fuel to this fire of 
speculation are the recent news reports alleging that the Rose Law Firm 
in Little Rock, AR has been destroying documents concerning the 
Whitewater Development Corp. I believe it is time that Congress and the 
American people receive answers to some simple questions, removing 
doubt and mystery from various events, and allow existing Congressional 
investigations to go forward.

  Contrary to the assertions of some individuals in the executive 
branch, and some Members of Congress, the most important role of the 
Congress is that of oversight and investigation in the public interest. 
Those powers are not vested solely in a few committee chairman, and 
that certainly was not the intention of the Founding Fathers.
  Mr. Speaker, one of America's foremost students of government, the 
Honorable Woodrow Wilson, once said and I quote:

       Unless Congress have and use every means of acquainting 
     itself with the acts and the disposition of the 
     administrative agents of the government, the country must be 
     helpless to learn how it is being served; and unless Congress 
     both scrutinize these things and sift them by every form of 
     discussion, the country must remain in embarrassing, 
     crippling ignorance of the very affairs which it is most 
     important that it should understand and direct. The informing 
     function of Congress should be preferred even to its 
     legislative function * * *.

  Throughout my public career, I have considered and held dear the 
sacred trust the citizens have placed upon me. I have tried to honor 
that trust through my actions, and I believe I am doing so today with 
the indroduction of this resolution.

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