Thomas Daschle: “But the issue is are we willing to establish a new precedent here; that every time somebody is investigated, every time…”

“But the issue is are we willing to establish a new precedent here; that every time somebody is investigated, every time somebody is found to be innocent of some charges, the Government then automatically reimburses that person for whatever legal fees they have incurred. If we are prepared to do that, I think this side would have a very significant list of people that we may want to address. Shall we do that for Congress as well? Where does it stop? I think all of this needs to be considered much more carefully than we have done thus far. We have amendments we want to talk about. We think a good debate may be in order before we set this precedent. Before we are asked to put our names on the line and vote affirmatively or negatively on this issue, ultimately I think a much better understanding of the facts and a far better understanding of the complications regarding the unprecedented nature of this legislation ought to be considered. So for those reasons, we are not prepared to go to the bill today.”