[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 30, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3317-S3318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RICE TESTIMONY
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, honestly, I had come to the floor to
submit a resolution on behalf of myself and 14 of my colleagues,
including Senators Kennedy, Byrd, Lieberman, Clinton, Corzine, Dodd,
Johnson, Hollings, Reid from Nevada, Lautenberg, Dorgan, Durbin,
Daschle, and Nelson to ask the President to allow Condoleezza Rice to
testify under oath and in public. I heard NBC News has announced she
will do just that. So the resolution is moot. I will make a couple of
points, though.
One is I suppose all of the protestation that this would violate
separation of powers has gone by the wayside. We all knew that was just
a smokescreen because this commission is not congressional, and the
whole theory of separation of powers is congressional.
The bottom line is the real reason the administration did not want
Condoleezza Rice to testify, that they did not want her out there
speaking about this, is quite apparent and had nothing to do with
separation of powers.
The second point I make is to compliment the Commission. The
Commission has done an incredible job. I think when Tom Kean, the
former Governor of New Jersey, a Republican, one known for integrity,
said the only way she would testify was under oath--she has been on
every talk show. She is on television 24/7. So she has plenty of time
to go public and say what she wants, but not what the Commission will
ask her under oath.
Her statements, her public statements contradicted some of Dick
Clarke's. Dick Clarke's were given under oath. Dick Clarke's were given
after considerable criticism and vituperation directed from the White
House and the attack machine that we know about here in Washington, the
Republican attack machine. He stood by his story. So we now all wait
with bated breath to hear what Condoleezza Rice will say under oath.
Mr. President, people as diverse as Colin Powell, John McCain, Chuck
Hagel--Republicans--have talked about Dick Clarke's character. I have
known Dick Clarke for a long time. He is a principled man. He has been
a registered Republican. Whenever he met me--and I met him under the
Clinton administration--he said he was a Republican. His one passion
was to make America safe.
When all the information he had and all the work he and his staff had
done were ignored, he became more and more frustrated. Dick Clarke's
book is not aimed at political retribution. Dick Clarke's book is aimed
at the truth. Like everywhere else, the Scriptures are right: The truth
will set us free.
[[Page S3318]]
I hope Condoleezza Rice fully testifies, testifies truthfully. The
Commission's goal is not to point fingers or blame; the Commission's
goal is to find out what went wrong so we don't do it again. No one
feels that more keenly than the families in my State who have lost
loved ones and who yearn for the truth; not so much because it will
ever bring their loved ones back but because they, in a charitable, an
eleemosynary gesture, want to prevent it from happening again.
This is a good step. We ought to trust this Commission. It is
bipartisan. It has many people of integrity on it. Let it go forward
without stonewalling. The truth, the truth will set us free.
OPEC
I would like to bring one other issue forward now that something has
been announced, and that is the issue of OPEC. Tomorrow the OPEC
nations meet. I have a letter that has been signed by 19 of my
colleagues as well urging the President, today, to speak out strongly
and publicly to get OPEC to back off their counterproductive policy to
restrict the amount of oil that flows into the market and raise the
prices. It is counterproductive because it is going to cause our
economy to slow down and hurt everybody.
But where is the voice of our President? He went out of his way to
create a $400 tax cut, to put money into the hands of average families
to stimulate the economy. I was all for that part of his tax proposal.
But now that tax cut is going to OPEC. By the end of the summer, the
average American family with 2 cars will pay $400 more than they paid
for gasoline because of this recent price rise in OPEC. It is taking
the wind out of our economy.
OPEC is a monopoly--an oligopoly. It is killing America. We have a
solution, which is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which President
Clinton did dip into after, frankly, I pressured him for 6 months. That
brought oil prices down and they stayed down. Where is President Bush?
What is his policy to deal with oil prices now?
He talks about the energy bill, he talks about ANWR. At best, whether
you agree with it or not, that is not going to put more oil on the
market for 5 years. What are we doing now, as OPEC drains dollars from
the American family's pockets? There is no extra money to take the
vacation, build the extra room on the house, or buy the new car. The
President fiddles, frankly, while Rome burns, while oil prices go
through the roof, not because of a free market but because there is a
monopoly here that is manipulating price.
OPEC always said they would keep the price no greater than $28 a
barrel. It is now about $10 more than that. Now, with the Saudi
announcement this morning that they are going to constrict oil
production further, it should go above $40 a barrel. That is a very bad
sign for this economy and for the American taxpayer, the American
family.
The President is silent. He has to tell his Saudi friends they have
to come clean. He has a weapon, an ace in the hole at his disposal, and
that is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In this letter, 19 of us urge
him to speak out today before the OPEC meeting tomorrow and shake up
the Saudis and shake up OPEC and tell them that, if they don't start
producing more oil, we will use our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has used 7\1/2\ minutes.
Under the previous order, the Senator from Illinois is recognized for
7\1/2\ minutes.
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