Senate Probe of Whitewater to Be Cut Back

Senate Republicans moved Tuesday to resume their Whitewater investigation of President and Mrs. Clinton, but with a different committee and more constrained resources.

Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) shifted the probe to the Banking Committee, which he heads, after Democrats again succeeded in blocking an extension and more funds for the specially designated Whitewater panel that D’Amato also chairs.

The move will allow the long-running probe to resume with additional hearings next week into the business activities of the Clintons in the late 1980s. But the shift will mean that since staff and money must come from a panel that has other issues and expenses to manage, the hearings are likely to be more limited in scope.

D’Amato, in fact, pledged he would try to end the hearings by late June so as not to intrude into the presidential election campaign--a key objection Democrats had raised to his proposal for $600,000 to fund an indefinite extension of the special panel. Democrats had offered to compromise by extending hearings until June 7, but D’Amato rejected any firm deadline.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that “there is absolutely no reason” to move the hearings to the Banking Committee because an agreement was possible for a modified extension of the special panel.

“The only unresolved issue is whether Republicans will agree to respect a June deadline,” Daschle said.

D’Amato’s announcement that the Banking Committee would meet this morning to issue new Whitewater-related subpoenas followed his sixth failed attempt to bring an extension of the special committee to a vote on the Senate floor. To end a Democratic filibuster against an up-or-down vote, Republicans have been unable to obtain 60 votes for cloture, holding only a 53-47 edge in the Senate. D’Amato, attacking Democrats for “stonewalling” tactics, told reporters that he had no alternative other than the Banking Committee because “obviously the [special] committee’s work has not been completed.”

The Senate last May voted to create a special panel with a budget of $950,000 and a cutoff date of Feb. 29. The panel conducted 47 days of hearings but shortly before its deadline D’Amato told the Senate that it would need an indefinite extension on grounds the White House had failed to turn over all the records that were subpoenaed.