[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 23, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: March 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE
(Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous
material.)
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, it looks like the fox is back in the hen house
one more time. Here we go again, another Clinton White House official
in trouble over ethical problems. I read in the Washington Times this
morning an answer to a question I asked here a week or two ago, why are
we having stalling on these passes at the White House for security
clearances? National security is a matter of some concern to us,
especially with all the terrorism we see going around today.
I discover we have a gentleman who has been reprimanded once by the
way he handled the Travelgate situation, Mr. Kennedy, a member of the
Rose law firm apparently, who has been put in charge of the passes.
Maybe that explains why we have got a backlog.
Quoting from the paper, it says ``Mr. Kennedy's failure to routinely
pass the reports on to Secret Service for review resulted in a long
backlog of employees awaiting clearance for a permanent pass, according
to congressional and administration officials.''
It goes on to say, ``Of about 1,000 FBI background checks of White
House personnel, more than 500 revealed derogatory information that
would have prevented the people from obtaining security clearances at
the FBI, Defense Department, or CIA, said an administration source.''
And these people are making decisions.
Mr. Speaker, I include the following material at the end of my
remarks.
[From the Washington Times, March 23, 1994]
Passes Stalled by White House Aide
(By Rowan Scarborough)
White House Associate Counsel William H. Kennedy III's
decision to hold back hundreds of completed FBI background
reports was the chief reason many White House employees did
not have permanent access passes months after assuming their
jobs.
Mr. Kennedy's failure to routinely pass the reports on to
the Secret Service for review resulted in a long backlog of
employees awaiting clearance for a permanent pass, according
to congressional and administration officials.
The pass backlog started last year after the Secret Service
expressed reservations about approving permanent badges for
two aides for security reasons based on their FBI reports,
according to the officials.
Only Mr. Kennedy--criticized for his role in the Travelgate
affair and reportedly close to resigning--and first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton remain of the four partners of Little
Rock's Rose Law Firm who came to Washington with President
Clinton.
The others were Associate Attorney General Webster L.
Hubbell, who announced his resignation last week to deal with
charges that he overbilled clients at the Rose firm, and
Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr., who died
last July of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Mr. Kennedy
may have tried to hide a tax problem from FBI agents
investigating his background. The newspaper said Mr. Kennedy
paid $1,300 in delinquent Social Security taxes under his
wife's maiden name and through a Little Rock accounting firm.
White House Communications Director Mark Gearan said
yesterday that Mr. Kennedy told him he was not trying to
conceal anything and that his wife ``wanted to keep her
[maiden] name alive.''
Mr. Kennedy, who is in the process of a divorce, was
reprimanded by the White House last year for
``inappropriate'' contacts with the FBI after the abrupt
firing of White House travel office employees.
Of about 1,000 FBI background checks of White House
personnel, more than 500 revealed derogatory information that
would have prevented the people from obtaining security
clearances at the FBI, Defense Department or CIA, said an
administration source, who asked not to be named.
The FBI found cases of past drug use and drug convictions,
years of unpaid taxes, unpaid debts and financial
irregularities--discrepancies that can be grounds for Secret
Service questions.
In recent days, as press reports disclosed the backlog, the
White House has moved to issue large batches of building
passes, apparently to people whose background reports were
complete but had not yet been submitted to the Secret
Service.
White House spokeswoman Ginny Terzano yesterday disputed
that hundreds of background reports had been held up because
the FBI uncovered discrepancies.
``Your sources are just totally wrong. Your numbers and
your characterization are wrong,'' Ms. Terzano said.
White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said two weeks
ago that the backlog was the result of negligent employees
failing to fill out initial questionnaires needed to start
the FBI clearance procedure. On the job for more than 14
months, Miss Myers herself had not completed any of the
background forms and is using a temporary pass.
Ms. Terzano said on Monday that Miss Myers since has filled
out the necessary forms. She said all employees are now in
compliance with White House guidelines that call for
submitting the paperwork within their first 30 days on the
job.
``Only a handful'' of applicable employees, like Miss
Myers, had not filled out the forms in time to meet the
deadline, Ms. Terzano said. ``What you ought to be writing
about is that we're in compliance,'' she added.
Congressional and administration sources said tardiness is
only part of the problem. The sources said much of the
backlog is due to FBI reports coming back with derogatory
information that caused Mr. Kennedy to delay submitting them
to the Secret Service.
Mr. Kennedy did not return a telephone call for comment
yesterday.
The large number of White House aides without permanent
passes is ``radically different'' from previous
administrations, which in most cases gave employees no more
than 60 days to get a permanent pass, one administration
source said. While called a ``permanent'' pass, the access is
good for five years.
``Secret Service is royally mad at Kennedy because this is
not the way the system is supposed to be run,'' the
administration source said.
Mr. Kennedy, who oversees the issuing of passes, himself
did not complete the FBI check to get a permanent pass until
early December, after being at the White House nearly a year.
Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, who charges the White
House has stonewalled Congress in providing information
regarding the passes, said yesterday he will ask the General
Accounting Office to investigate.
``The reports of hundreds of White House employees . . .
not having permanent passes for over a year into the
administration is alarming,'' said Mr. Wolf, a member of the
House Appropriations subcommittee on Treasury, postal
services and general government. ``Why weren't timely
procedures followed? Why did those in charge continually
misrepresent the situation?''
It normally takes about two months for an employee to
undergo the background check and obtain a permanent pass.
Permanent passes are issued on the authority of the counsel's
office, with input from the Secret Service and the White
House Office of Security.
Other senior White House aides, in addition to Miss Myers
and Mr. Kennedy, also failed to gain a permanent pass months
after assuming duties.
White House Chief of Staff Thomas ``Mack'' McLarty, who
wrote the guidelines for employees to follow, did not get a
permanent pass until earlier this month, after newspapers,
including The Washington Times, first disclosed the backlog.
Patsy Thomasson, who directs the White House Office of
Administration, got a permanent pass this month after she was
the subject of a Wall Street Journal editorial.
The administration source said the news stories infuriated
Mr. Clinton, who spoke to Mr. Kennedy about the delays last
week.
Incoming White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler, who has pledged
to clear up the backlog, said last week that aides had been
ordered to expedite the process. He detailed Christopher
Cerf, general counsel in the office of administration, to
complete the task.
Mr. Cutler, in a March 18 letter to Mr. Wolf, said top
aides such as Miss Myers can still review top-secret material
despite not having a final building pass.
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