[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11928]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       COMMENTS ON COX COMMITTEE

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, recently Secretary of Energy Bill 
Richardson stated, ``I can assure the American people that their 
nuclear secrets are now safe at the labs.'' Somehow I do not think the 
American people believe him.
  In fact, the unanimous conclusion of the Cox Committee is also at 
odds with the Secretary's reassurance. The committee concludes that 
``such thefts almost certainly continue to the present day.''
  I am quite distressed at the reaction of the administration's 
spokesmen who even to this very day are downplaying the significance of 
the Cox report finding. And, of course, they are changing the subject.
  The big news is not that our nuclear secrets were stolen. The 
incomprehensible news is what this administration has done about it 
when it was discovered in 1995 that the crown jewel of our nuclear 
arsenal, the W-88, was stolen by the Communist Chinese.
  No one told the President.
  The Justice Department denied the FBI's request for a wiretap on the 
clear and obvious suspect.
  The issue, my colleagues, is what was done in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 
and 1999.

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