[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.

                          ____________________