Gary Condit: “I just want to respond to my colleague from California (Mr. Thomas) with respect when he makes reference to when we were…”

“I just want to respond to my colleague from California (Mr. Thomas) with respect when he makes reference to when we were in the majority and Iran Contra investigation. I want to let him know that I voted with him, I voted with him to reduce the cost of investigations. I voted with the chairman to reduce the cost of investigations to bring a halt to that. Welfare reform, a significant group of Democrats voted with the chairman and with the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) to try to save money to try to reform the welfare proposal. I am not a Johnny-come-lately on this issue of saving money on investigations. I have brought this issue up time and time again in the committee, asking the chairman not to duplicate, not to spend money twice to get the same information. When we had the other body doing the investigation, I asked them not to duplicate. When the other body was doing their investigation, I consistently asked the chairman of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight not to duplicate. So I tell my colleagues and I tell the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) I am not someone who just comes here today at the last minute to bring this up. I brought this up consistently. It is a sincere attempt to try to change the way we investigate each other around here. Let me tell my colleagues, if they think our side of the aisle did it wrong so they are going to do it wrong, that is not a good enough reason. We need to put a stop to this.”