Byron Dorgan: “on Friday of this week we will be holding in the Democratic Policy Committee a hearing that deals with part of our…”

“on Friday of this week we will be holding in the Democratic Policy Committee a hearing that deals with part of our overall goal to hold oversight hearings that are not being held by committees. This Friday's hearing will be on the subject of Social Security. Among the witnesses at this hearing will be Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandson, the AARP, and we will have a couple of employees of the Social Security Administration who will testify about efforts inside the Social Security Administration to get some of the career employees to push the issue of privatization and the issue that there is, in fact, a crisis in Social Security. We are going to have a hearing on these issues. Incidentally, we have invited witnesses who will provide a full range of opinions. A representative of the Cato Institute is invited to appear. As we have always done with our hearings, we have people with divergent viewpoints. As I indicated previously, I would invite any Republicans to join us at any of our hearings at any time. Our intention is not to have hearings that are 'gotcha.' Our intention is to have hearings, however, in circumstances where we believe oversight has not occurred. These hearings will give us an opportunity to explore issues in a more aggressive way. We held hearings previously, for example, on contract abuses in Iraq by the Halliburton corporation.”