[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 60 (Wednesday, May 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H3234]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H3234]]
DEMOCRATS ON CHAIRMAN BURTON'S COMMITTEE JUSTIFIED IN REFUSING TO VOTE 
                              FOR IMMUNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, several hours ago, the House Committee on 
Government Reform and Oversight gave a vote of no confidence to the 
campaign finance investigation being headed by my friend, the gentleman 
from Indiana (Mr. Burton). The committee declined to immunize four 
witnesses and haul them before his committee. As a past chairman of 
that committee, I can tell you that what the committee did today was 
the only course of action they could take.

                              {time}  2245

  My Democratic colleagues were not asking for much. They simply wanted 
procedures for subpoenas that would give them a chance to object and 
force a committee vote before such subpoenas could be issued. They were 
willing to negotiate, but Chairman Burton was not.
  I am sorry to say this, but Chairman Burton's recent actions have 
discredited the Committee on House Oversight of the Congress, which is 
supposed to set the example for fair investigative procedure. Never in 
my tenure as chairman of that committee, not once, did the minority 
complain that a major investigation was unfair or conducted without 
their full involvement.
  Consider the causes for our embarrassment. More than 600 subpoenas 
have been unilaterally issued, without one of them ever having a 
committee vote or the involvement of members of the committee; a 
stubborn and continuing refusal to subpoena any witnesses requested by 
the Democratic members of the committee; a tasteless decision to 
release the private conversations between Mr. Hubbell and his wife, 
that had no connection to the subject matter that the committee was 
investigating; the misleading editing of the tape transcripts, which 
should have never been released in the first place, forcing a public 
rebuke by the Speaker himself for the embarrassment caused to the House 
of Representatives; and, finally, growing evidence that the committee 
may be improperly and perhaps illegally coordinating its investigation 
with that of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, which, by Federal law, 
is supposed to remain secret.
  So the failure of the committee's investigation carries an important 
lesson for all of us in Congress: The concerns of every member of a 
committee, especially an investigative committee, cannot be ignored or 
shunted aside by procedural maneuvers.
  I am hopeful that my colleagues will keep these lessons in mind as we 
move forward from the ashes of the Burton investigation.

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