John Sarbanes: “Is the minority leader aware that one of the strongest advocates of placing a time limit in order to ensure that the…”

“Is the minority leader aware that one of the strongest advocates of placing a time limit in order to ensure that the hearings would not drag into a political year was the then-minority leader, now majority leader, Senator Dole, at the time of Iran-Contra? At that time, he said there was a conflict between some Democrats, both in the House and Senate, who wanted no time limitations placed on the committee and Republican Members who wanted those hearings completed within 2 to 3 months, which was an absolutely truncated period. I want to point out that we joined in a resolution last year in May that carried these hearings to February 29, so we made no effort then to have such a truncated period that it would not be possible to do the work. Senator Dole then said he wanted to shorten the time period even more. He says, "I do believe that shortening the time period from October 30 to August 1 is a step in the right direction. If, in fact, we do want to complete action on this resolution at the earliest possible time, then the August date will be extremely helpful." Then he went on to say, "I am heartened by what I understand to be the strong commitment of both the chairman and vice chairman to avoid fishing expeditions, to keep the committee focused on the real issues." Later in debate he said, "There is still a national agenda that needs to be pursued. There are a number of issues that must be addressed.”