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America Strikes Back: Senate Members Give Rough Outline of Compromise with Bush
Aired October 10, 2001 - 08:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks much, Christiane. We take you very quickly to outside the White House, where House Speaker Dennis Hastert is talking to reporters.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: ... some of our differences and try to work them out. We have a lot to do. We have the appropriation process to finish. We have some important pieces of legislation to finish, and these meetings have been very, very helpful in trying to lay out some strategies and how we can better work together.
(INAUDIBLE)
HASTERT: I can't hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What was the agreement -- the new agreement on sharing information? Which committees will be briefed now? Has he basically rescinded the memo restricting access to the intelligence committee from the leadership?
HASTERT: What he said is that he will have Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Powell brief their respective committees.
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MINORITY LEADER: Let me just say, too, I think Senator Daschle said it right. There will be briefings from appropriate personnel about what has been going on, how we've done in the operations that have been under way. I think that Senator Daschle talked about that is the sort of thing we need to know to know how we can be prepared for the future.
I think we'll get through this, and the president has made his point. We need to be very careful about what we reveal.
But I want to mention a couple of other things. We stand here together, again, shoulder to shoulder -- Republicans and Democrats working with this president. He continues to reach out to us on a regular basis. It helps us to be able to explain what our government is doing and to work with our members in the House and the Senate. We are very much committed to working through getting a counterterrorism bill and also addressing the very important question of aviation security. These are not easy issues. They are very important to find the right kind of balance, but we had an opportunity to again discuss it with the president, and we are committed to working in the Senate and in the House in getting these two very important pieces of legislation, as we begin to go forward on appropriations bills also -- Dick.
SEN. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: We also talked about the economic stimulus package, which we've all been working on. There is an effort here to get this done quickly, so that if we can get the monies out to people before the holiday season, there is an effort to do that.
We're going to use a quickened regular process, as we have talked before. We are going to include the committees -- include all of the people in the Congress, but try to make it work faster to get this done, so that it can stimulate the economy. While we go through this process, we've got to keep a strong economy. And we've got a lot of unemployed workers out there that need health insurance and need unemployment, and we're going to try to deal with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How far apart are you still? Where do you stand on (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
GEPHARDT: Well, we didn't go into the details of the specifics, but I think there was a commitment on everybody's part to get this done as quickly as possible. Again, if you're unemployed, you need help. And if you're a consumer, we need you back in the malls doing things in making this economy go forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What progress was made on the congressional side about the handling of this information? Strictly members get the information and only hand-picked staff members get the information?
HASTERT: We didn't go into that detail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What was it that upset the president so much?
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Well, I don't -- we won't get into specifics, but I think it's clear to all of us that when information that is sensitive to our operations, sensitive in terms of national security, when that information is leaked, it does serious damage. And it violates the trust that there must be between Congress and the administration. We need to restore that trust, and we're all determined to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Do you believe he was justified in his concern by something that happened last week?
DASCHLE: I do. I completely support his expressions of concern, and I think we have to address it. And we've collectively made that decision, and we're going to try to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Should this information, aside from how it was handled, which I understand was objectionable in and of itself. Is this the kind of information that should be classified that was first discussed, which had to do with threats to the public?
HASTERT: Let me -- I think anytime that you talk about future operations, you certainly need to be very, very qualified in what you say, and also that should be very, very limited information. If we're talking about need for appropriations, we're talking about how operations -- the success of past operations, I think we can go into a bigger detail. But to put our troops and our plans in jeopardy for something that I just think any person should be able to understand that we don't want to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: But my understanding is that this does not deal with operational details, it had to do with specific threats to the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Do any of you think that there should be any kind of investigation -- congressional investigation to determine how (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
LOTT: I think, frankly, that maybe we're making too much to do about this. The president has made his point. We all are going to be careful. I mean, we are able to receive information, and we don't talk about it. And therefore, you know, we're trusted to get even more.
But the president is going to make sure that the appropriate committees get the information they need, and that the members are going to be briefed on what has been going on, how it's worked, and that will be a part of our decision making in the future.
I don't know all of the details about what may or may not have gotten out, but we've all agreed the point has been made, and we're moving on. And we'll get what we need, and he'll be able to do what he needs to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
ZAHN: All right. There you see it. The rough outlines of the truce emerging between members of Congress and the White House over access to classified material.
You may remember that a member of Congress is now being accused of leaking some very specific information -- classified information to a reporter. Senator Daschle saying that members of Congress will try to restore trust with the White House, and that Senator Lott saying quite pointedly that members of Congress got the point from the president.
You saw that John King earlier showed a small except of President Bush's very strong comments and his anger about this information being leaked. This is a subject we'll continue to discuss all morning long.
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