[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  ACTIVITIES OF THE BANKING COMMITTEE

  (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, I am perplexed and saddened.
  I have been a member of the Banking Committee of this House now going 
on 14 years. During those years we have always had comity and mutual 
respect among our members. By tradition and temperament we have never 
been among the bitterly partisan crowd here in Washington--not even 
when we had sharp differences on the issues.
  But that tradition has now been broken.
  Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the committee, my friend, Henry 
Gonzalez, and I have always worked together for the good of the people.
  But I stand here today in disbelief at his abrupt cancellation of our 
Banking Committee oversight hearing. The chairman's letter yesterday 
used intemperate language and harshly impugned the integrity of our 
colleague, Jim Leach, one of the least partisan and most respected 
statesmen of this body.
  I would beg our chairman to reconsider. These oversight hearings on 
the Resolution Trust Corporation and our committee's statutory and 
constitutional obligation.
  The S&L bailout cost taxpayers $150 billion--$60 million in one 
single Arkansas thrift.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day. The chairman of the Banking Committee 
is questioning our motives. Newspaper editorials are calling it the 
cancellation stonewalling. The call for a select committee is beside 
the point. The cancellation of the RTC oversight hearings is being seen 
as a play for time.
  But this will not wash. Yesterday's development further tarnishes the 
reputation of Congress. As E.J. Dionne writes in this morning's 
Washington Post on the Whitewater handling, ``if there is nothing to 
hide, then why do they seem to be hiding things?''

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