[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 26 (Thursday, February 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1631-H1632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PRESIDENT GAGGING WITNESSES BEFORE CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] is recognized 
for 15 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening for a 
brief period of time to discuss an unfortunate incident involving the 
Clinton administration. As the chairman of the Research and Development 
Committee for the Committee on National Security, my responsibility is 
to oversee the funding for the research and development component of 
our national defense. That amounts to approximately 30 billion-odd 
dollars a year.
  One of our top priorities, Mr. Speaker, is to review the missile 
defense capabilities of this country, to provide for the common defense 
of the people of this Nation from a deliberate or accidental launch of 
a cruise or ballistic missile from any place or spot in the world. It 
is a very important topic, and one that resulted in strong bipartisan 
support in the 1995 calendar year, as Democrats and Republicans joined 
together in providing one of the single biggest differences in the 
Clinton administration's defense request.
  In the House committee, our bill, which plussed up the missile 
defense accounts by $800 million, the bill passed by a vote of 48 to 3. 
On the House floor, in spite of what the President had requested for 
missile defense, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives 
and moderates, joined together with a 300-vote margin in approving the 
changes we provided for in the committee. So there was strong 
bipartisan support in this Congress.
  In the end, Mr. Speaker, however, the administration and the 
President vetoed the bill, because he said what we had done in the area 
providing a national missile defense would in fact violate the ABM 
Treaty. That was not in fact true, and we knew it at the time, but the 
President said it will anyway.
  Starting this year, Mr. Speaker, we agreed we would bring in the 
witnesses from the administration to tell the story as to whether or 
not we could build a system that was within the ABM Treaty, at a 
relatively low cost, that was doable and would protect the American 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, today we were scheduled to hold a hearing, my 
subcommittee, at 10 a.m. A total of 12 members showed up, 10 
Republicans and 2 Democrats, and zero witnesses.
  The witnesses who were supposed to be at the hearing included Gen. 
Mal O'Neill, who heads the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, 
Clinton's point person on missile defense, General Garner, who is the 
Army's missile defense spokesman, and General Linhard, who is the Air 
Force's point person on missile defense.
  Interestingly enough, Mr. Speaker, they were all anxious to testify. 
In fact, I have their testimony. Each of them submitted it to us as if 
they were there. As I hold up the testimony they were going to give to 
us, it is very interesting. In fact, I will provide this to any Member 
of Congress, and anyone who is watching us today, Mr. Speaker, can 
obtain copies of this testimony, because it is unclassified, from any 
Member of Congress who would in fact contact my office or the 
administration to get it.
  But they could not show up. Why did they not show up and why could 
they not? Because the Clinton administration imposed a gag rule. 
Unbelievable as it may seem, Mr. Speaker, today for the first time, to 
my knowledge, in the history of this country, the Pentagon and the 
administration and Bill Clinton imposed a gag rule on generals in our 
Army and our Air Force who were asked to come before this Congress to 
talk about an issue of vital concern to this country, and that is 
missile defense.
  Now, why would not these generals have been allowed to come forward 
to this hearing to testify before Democrats and Republicans? Was there 
some reason? Well, Mr. Speaker, there were two issues that were cited, 
and I would like to refer to both of them.
  First of all, the administration claimed that they could not come 
forward, they were not allowed, and this was not decided until 
yesterday late in the afternoon, because, as Deputy Secretary of 
Defense White said, we did not want anyone on the Hill from the 
Pentagon testifying prior to Secretary Perry and Dr. Kaminski coming in 
and testifying before the Congress on this year's fiscal request. That 
was what they said was the reason why they could not appear.
  That is somewhat unbelievable, Mr. Speaker, because yesterday the 
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Owens, appeared 
before the Senate Committee on National Security, gave written 
testimony, and answered questions about missile defense. So the policy 
in fact was not upheld, and that was merely an excuse by the 
administration to try to justify why they would not let these three 
generals come in.
  Now, the second reason they gave, Mr. Speaker, was that they were 
willing to give us a briefing, but not allow testimony to occur. In 
fact, the only briefing that took place this week was the briefing of 
administrative officials 

[[Page H1632]]
to Democrats only. Republicans were not invited.
  One of our staff members was called the day before the briefing and 
was told that he could receive a similar briefing. He was similarly 
called the day of our hearing and was told that Members of Congress 
could come in for that from both parties. Obviously the schedules were 
already made up for that day and the rest of the week.
  So why then, Mr. Speaker, would this administration not want generals 
in our Air Force and our Army to come before Congress and the American 
people? Very simply, Mr. Speaker, it is because their testimony would 
prove that this administration has once again lied.
  Mr. Speaker, as pure and simply as I can put it, again these generals 
would prove that this administration lied to the American people. This 
administration said that we could not build a national missile defense 
system that would protect all 50 States and be compliant with the ABM 
Treaty.

  In fact, General Garner was prepared to state on the record, as his 
outline summarizes, that he has a plan that can be completed in 4 years 
at a cost of less than $5 billion using existing capabilities that 
would give us a level of protection that we have never had before in 
this Nation.
  General Linhard was prepared in his statement to say the Air Force 
could give us a similar capability using existing technology for a cost 
of less than $3 billion from a single site that would give us, agian, a 
limited protection that we have never had for the people of this 
country. These two systems would give the American people the same 
protection that the Russian people already have with the world's only 
operational ABM system which surrounds Moscow and which protects 80 
percent of the Russian people.
  Now, these two generals who work for the taxpayers, but who, 
unfortunately, report to Secretary Perry and ultimately Bill Clinton, 
were gagged. They were told in personal phone calls, ``You can't come 
up to the hill.''
  I chatted with Speaker Gingrich earlier today about this, and he was 
outraged. I chatted with the gentleman from Louisiana, Bob Livingston, 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from 
Florida, Bill Young, chairman of the Defense Committee on 
Appropriations, and the gentleman from South Carolina, Floyd Spence, 
chairman of the Committee on National Security, and they were all 
outraged.
  Let me say this, Mr. Speaker: This administration can run, but it 
cannot hide. They may have prevented three generals from coming up on 
the Hill today, but it will not happen again. I say this, Mr. Speaker, 
to you as our voice to the administration: The next time this 
administration denies our request to have a witness, we will issue a 
subpoena.

                              {time}  1815

  And we will have those generals up at the table where they will be 
able to tell the American people and this Congress the facts.
  This administration is not going to be able to distort and twist 
things to suit their ultimate political objectives. That is what 
occurred today. And if this President and this Secertary of Defense 
think that they will again be successful in denying the public and 
Members of this Congress the ability to understand and know the facts 
as they are, then they are very shortsighted.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to you tonight that we will again hold these 
hearings. We will have General O'Neill again requested to come before 
our committee next week and I assume he will be there. But beyond that, 
we will again have General Linhard, and we will again have General 
Garner before our committee where they will be allowed to tell their 
story.
  I would say this, Mr. Speaker, they will be allowed to speak freely. 
They will be asked questions directly, and there will be no one to 
filter nor intercept or try to interpret what it is they say. And in 
the end, the Members of this body and the people of this country can 
determine why the administration did not want these three generals to 
appear before our committee. Because in the end the people of this 
country will see that once again this President and this administration 
has done what they do so well, and that is distort the facts, change 
the truth, deny reality, and attempt to sway public opinion for 
political purposes while in fact jeopardizing the security of the 
people of this country.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that this incident had to occur today. 
It is unfortunate that what was a legitimate attempt to have the 
Members of this body get factual information on which they can base 
their decisions was circumvented by an administration so worrisome 
about the truth getting out in terms of the facts that are out there 
and the evidence provided by the generals that we hold responsible for 
the lives of our troops and for the safety of our people.
  I say to you, Mr. Speaker, it will not happen again.

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