[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1200
 
             CANCELLATION OF VA-HUD APPROPRIATIONS HEARING

  (Mr. LEWIS of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, White House politics is now 
interfering with the legitimate business of the people's House.
  This morning the Veterans' and Housing Appropriations Committee, a 
committee on which I am the senior Republican member, has canceled its 
hearings. Is that cancellation because today's witnesses were from the 
FDIC and the RTC, the same agencies now under scrutiny by Whitewater 
investigators? It it because today's witnesses might have presented 
information that the White House did not want to hear? Is it out of 
fear of what might have been revealed in today's hearings?
  Incidentially, the actual purpose of this legitimate hearing was to 
examine the budgets of these two agencies for the 1995 fiscal year.
  Just last month, both agencies released public reports absolving each 
other of failing to detect obvious conflicts of interest at the Rose 
law firm in Little Rock, AR. Those reports raised serious questions 
that I think should be addressed.
  I am not one to use the term ``coverup'' lightly, but the defensive 
nature of the White House and the House Democratic leadership leads me 
to ask the question, ``What are they hiding?''
  The White House war room must be working overtime today in 
preparation for the President's press conference this evening. At a 
time when our country should be focusing on the future of Mexico, and 
the situation in North Korea, the President remains over his head in 
Whitewater.

                          ____________________