Jerry Lewis: “White House politics is now interfering with the legitimate business of the people's House. This morning the Veterans'…”

“White House politics is now interfering with the legitimate business of the people's House. This morning the Veterans' and Housing Appropriations Committee, a committee on which I am the senior Republican member, has canceled its hearings. Is that cancellation because today's witnesses were from the FDIC and the RTC, the same agencies now under scrutiny by Whitewater investigators? It it because today's witnesses might have presented information that the White House did not want to hear? Is it out of fear of what might have been revealed in today's hearings? Incidentially, the actual purpose of this legitimate hearing was to examine the budgets of these two agencies for the 1995 fiscal year. Just last month, both agencies released public reports absolving each other of failing to detect obvious conflicts of interest at the Rose law firm in Little Rock, AR. Those reports raised serious questions that I think should be addressed. I am not one to use the term 'coverup' lightly, but the defensive nature of the White House and the House Democratic leadership leads me to ask the question, 'What are they hiding?'”