[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6980-6981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              CHERYL MILLS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 4, 2000

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, hearings on the White House e-mails being 
conducted by the Committee on Government Reform have provoked serious 
questions as officials and former officials with impeccable reputations 
have had their integrity questioned without evidence of wrongdoing 
traceable to them. Cheryl Mills, the young White House lawyer who spoke 
so memorably during the Senate Impeachment hearings, did it again 
during the Committee's hearings today. Her words concerning what 
inquisitional hearings do to young people and others considering public 
service deserve consideration by Members of the House who, after all, 
serve here because of the value they themselves attach to serving the 
public and their country.
  I submit her full statement for inclusion in the Record.

Opening Statement by Cheryl Mills, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. 
                 House of Representatives, May 4, 2000

       Mr. Chairman, Representative Waxman, Members of the 
     Committee on Government Reform:
       My name is Cheryl Mills. For almost seven years, I served 
     in the White House Counsel's Office under President Clinton. 
     During my tenure, I served first as Associate Counsel and 
     later as Deputy Counsel. When I arrived on January 20, 1993, 
     I was 27 years old; I was 34 when I left last October.
       I came into government because I believed that the 
     opportunity to serve this country was a valuable one. I 
     believed that giving of my time, my energy, and even my soul, 
     to try to make a difference was important. I believed that 
     the gift of one's labor and one's love for this country was 
     one of the purer things I, like other young people, had to 
     give.
       When I left, it had become hard for me to believe anymore. 
     I left increasingly cynical about Congress' commitment to 
     improving the lives of Americans. I left deeply troubled by 
     the culture of partisanship in Washington that with each 
     passing day was threatening the very essence of what is good, 
     and what is right, and what is joyful about public service. 
     When I left, it was no longer obvious to

[[Page 6981]]

     me that serving in government, with a Congress committed to 
     oversight by investigation, was worth the high toll it 
     exacted.
       And the greatness of that injustice, is not in its harm to 
     me. I am but one person. Rather, it is the damage that it 
     does to the ideals of all the young people who decide never 
     to serve. The young people who decide that no one should have 
     to love their country enough, to have their integrity, their 
     service and their commitment to doing the best they can, 
     impugned by some who sit in this body. The young people who 
     decide that their desire to serve their country and a 
     President, is not outweighed by the risks to their 
     reputation, their livelihood and their family. The young 
     people who decide that too many who toil in this body have 
     forgotten that their exalted positions are but loaned to them 
     by the young--on the understanding that they will seek what 
     is best for our country, not what is least.
       I left because I knew that only distance and time would 
     allow me to see again the many Members who serve honorably in 
     Congress every day. Members who choose to work hard for their 
     constituents on the issues that will enrich their lives. Men 
     and women who get up each morning not thinking about how they 
     can bring someone down, but about how they can lift us all 
     up.
       Mr. Chairman, I left because I was tired of playing a role 
     in dramas like today, when so many issues that mattered to me 
     that were not being addressed. You have held four days of 
     hearings, and spent countless more dollars on depositions and 
     document productions, but yet you have not chosen to use your 
     oversight authority to hold one day's worth of hearings 
     about: a man who was shot dead by an undercover New York 
     police officer while he was getting into a cab, after 
     refusing to buy drugs from that officer; any of the 67 cases 
     and counting that have been overturned because officers in 
     Los Angeles Police Department planted guns and drugs to frame 
     people, shot an unarmed man, and quite possibly shot another 
     man, with no criminal record, 10 times--killing him; why 
     African American youths charged with drug offenses are 48 
     times more likely than white youths to be sentenced to 
     prison.
       Not to mention all the other ways in which you could spend 
     your time making the lives of the individuals you serve 
     better, as opposed to tearing down the staff of a President 
     with whose vision and policies you disagree. You could choose 
     from a myriad of issues--health care, prescription drug 
     benefits, family medical leave, education reform, social 
     security, judicial reform. Nothing you discover here today, 
     will feed one person, give shelter to someone who is 
     homeless, educate one child, provide health care for one 
     family, or offer justice to one African American or Hispanic 
     juvenile. You could do so much to transform our country--but 
     instead you are compelled to use your great authority and 
     resources to address . . . e-mails.
       The energy your staff will spend poring over hearing 
     transcripts to create a perjury referral for you to send to 
     the Justice Department could be spent poring over the latest 
     statistics in the Justice Department's report on the unequal 
     treatment African American and Hispanic juveniles receive 
     before the law. And the resources that the Justice Department 
     will expend reviewing your allegations--causing those public 
     servants and their families considerable pain--could instead 
     be spent investigating why America's justice system 
     unfortunately is still not blind.
       I know I say all this at some personal peril, as my words 
     here today will no doubt make me an even greater target of 
     your ire. But when I got your letter last week about 
     attending this hearing--despite having advised you of my long 
     scheduled commitments--a letter in which you simply dismissed 
     my prior engagement, stating that you would not ``indulge my 
     schedule,`` I got tired and mad all over again.
       And if I had not had the chance to attend a dinner that 
     night in honor of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, 
     I probably would still be mad. Because, I would not have had 
     the chance to have my faith renewed by the example of what 
     other men with your power have chosen to do throughout 
     history to enhance the lives of others. I would not have been 
     reminded of how Robert Kennedy's work on behalf of issues 
     like race, and justice, and poverty, embodied the true spirit 
     of his greatest words: ``It is from numberless diverse acts 
     of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time 
     a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of 
     others,or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a 
     tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million 
     different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a 
     current, which can sweep down the mightiest walls of 
     oppression and resistance.''
       Had I not gone to that dinner, I would not have been 
     reminded that the smallness of any person, can never 
     overshadow the greatness of those whose acts are bigger than 
     life. I would not have been reminded that today, too, will 
     pass. And, that we who love our government are strong enough, 
     and not too weary. We can outlast a culture of investigation 
     and intimidation and idleness on behalf of issues that can 
     truly improve the lives of Americans.
       Mr. Chairman, I believe in your humanity, and in that of 
     those who serve on your staff. That each of you has good and 
     bad days; make good and bad judgments, render good and bad 
     decisions. Won't you believe in the humanity of others with 
     whom you disagree? Won't you believe that as with your 
     mistakes, they too can make mistakes that are not 
     conspiratorial? That they too can make a bad judgment, 
     without that judgment being pernicious? That they too can do 
     their best each day and expect more than a biased shake or a 
     perjury referral from this Committee? That they too can be 
     human, without this body using its awesome power to exploit 
     their humanity for political gain? Can Tony Barry, a man who 
     has served his government since 1992, expect that?
       I give my last quotation to Robert Kennedy because to me, 
     it is particularly fitting today. He said: ``The Constitution 
     protects wisdom and ignorance, compassion and selfishness 
     alike. But that dissent which consists simply of sporadic and 
     dramatic acts sustained by neither continuing labor or 
     research--that dissent which seeks to demolish while lacking 
     both the desire and direction for rebuilding, that dissent 
     which, contemptuously or out of laziness, casts aside the 
     practical weapons and instruments of change and progress--
     that kind of dissent is merely self-indulgence. It is 
     satisfying, perhaps, only those who make it.''
       I decided that smallness government cannot win. And that it 
     will note the weapon to defeat my ideals. That it is not 
     powerful enough to alter my belief in the good that so many 
     Members who serve in this body do.
       I decided, that in the final analysis, I am not too tired 
     to stand up for all of those who believe, even through the 
     drama, that public service is worth the price.

     

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