Travel Hearings

Your Oct. 25 story concerning my recent congressional testimony about the 1993 dismissals of seven White House travel office employees notes that I acknowledged serious mistakes in the White House’s handling of the issue. What the story fails to note is that this acknowledgment occurred in a report which I wrote and the White House publicly issued on July 2, 1993.

As I said in my testimony, not one fact in that report was challenged at the recent hearing. The only new news one could legitimately take away from these hearings is that the Republican majority believe that if they dish this old news up through a gullible press corps, the American people will ignore what the Republicans are doing to Medicare, Medicaid and other important social programs.

JOHN D. PODESTA

Washington