Cord Byrd: “on March 11, this body voted 99 to 0 to adopt a resolution that provides more than $4.3 million to the Committee on…”

“on March 11, this body voted 99 to 0 to adopt a resolution that provides more than $4.3 million to the Committee on Governmental Affairs for the sole purpose of investigating any and all improper or illegal activities stemming from the 1996 federal elections. The investigation will cover the presidential and congressional elections, and the results will be made known to the public early next year. I believe that one of the primary reasons the resolution had the full support of the Senate was because of the various compromises that succeeded in making the scope of the investigation both bipartisan and fair. Absent those accommodations, the resolution would have been seen by the American people as nothing more than an attempt by one party to gain political advantage over the other. That is why I am deeply concerned with the direction now being taken with this measure. Unlike the resolution that received the full support of the Senate on March 11, this resolution specifically targets for investigation by an independent counsel the President, the Vice President, unnamed White House officials, and the Democratic National Committee, and it does so based on nothing more substantial than 'reports in the media.' Mr. President, the American people are painfully aware that both parties are guilty of abusing the campaign financing system currently in place.”