Thomas Daschle: “first, I wish to indicate that I share much of the sentiment expressed by the distinguished majority leader about the…”

“first, I wish to indicate that I share much of the sentiment expressed by the distinguished majority leader about the importance of the oversight responsibilities that we hold to be very critical in this difficult and challenging time. I want to single out, in particular, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee for his valiant effort in trying to establish just what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how we can prevent it from occurring again. He has been criticized, in some cases, by members of his own party. I think that is very unfortunate. I think we have a role and that role ought not to be minimized at times of crises. I think we ought to take these investigations where the facts lead us. I do believe other committees ought to be involved as well, and in some cases they are. I also compliment the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Lugar, who always seems to be as engaged, in a constructive way, as anyone can be given his responsibilities. I think he ought to be recognized as well. There is work that should be done on the Judiciary Committee, Governmental Affairs Committee, and other committees that I think have yet to pursue the responsibilities they have for oversight as fully and completely as perhaps they should.”