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American Morning

New Capitol Visitor's Center Being Built

Aired February 25, 2002 - 08:44   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: We're going to turn now to the issue of Congress and the battle over campaign finance reform and the Enron investigation, of course, which will be two hot topics this week on Capitol Hill.

Correspondents Kate Snow and Jonathan Karl are going to take us under the Dome right now this morning. They're going to give us a view of the construction of a new Capitol visitor's center, which is a story in itself.

Good morning to the two of you.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: You look lovely bracing the Capitol behind you there.

SNOW: Well I want to show you where we are here to give you a little perspective. If you've been to the Capitol, follow me over here, you've noticed there are a lot of trees on the Capitol grounds usually. Look in this area back here now, the trees are gone. They tore out about 10 to 15 trees last week, Paula. They're making way for this new visitor's center, as you said.

There's construction everywhere around here. They're going to be building this visitor's center that'll be underground -- three stories underground. It'll house about 5,000 people at any one time, 1,500 people an hour are going to be able to tour the Capitol they tell us. And to do that, they have to clear out some of the trees here, they've had to erect barriers around us. You can hear, I think, the construction in the background behind us here.

It's all going to be sunk underneath this giant sort of parking lot that's behind us here under the asphalt. So that's what's going on here on the -- in the Capitol, that, added to all the increased security after 9-11 as well. So it's kind of a mess up here right now.

ZAHN: And if that construction's not enough, you also have to deal with the whole specter of campaign finance reform potentially being brought up before the Senate today. Senator Tom Daschle, I guess, has indicated he wants to do just that.

Jonathan, do you expect that to happen today? JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don't hold your breath, Paula. Basically, if Tom Daschle wants to bring up campaign finance reform in the Senate, he needs the cooperation of all of the U.S. Senate, needs all the Republicans to agree with him that now is the time to do it under the circumstances, under the conditions he wants to bring it up. That is almost, you know, not going to happen. I mean almost surely not going to happen.

Basically, Republicans, they're debating energy on the floor of the Senate right now. Republicans have been trying to get energy discussed in the Senate almost since the Democrats took over last year. They are not going to let campaign finance reform intrude.

So, Paula, campaign finance reform will come up. It'll probably be a few weeks, but you know nothing happens that quickly in the United States Senate, so stay tuned on that one.

ZAHN: All right, so they both here I want to take advantage of the time and move on to all things Enron now. Sherron Watkins, the so-called whistle -- Enron whistle-blower, going -- is going to be back on the Hill this week, I guess along with Jeffrey Skilling. But is it true the way that their testimony will be dealt with this time is a lot different than last time?

KARL: Well this is going to be very interesting, a high drama here in the U.S. Senate. It's going to be tomorrow. What's going to happen is you're going to have Skilling at the very same table as Sherron Watkins. The two of them will be sitting there on the same panel. Also, by the way, including Jeffery McMahon, who is the president of Enron.

What's interesting about this is you have Watkins who says that she believes that Skilling was highly involved in what was going on with the accounting schemes that led to Enron's demands and you're going to have Skilling who says that he wasn't very involved and he thought all the rules and all the safeguards were followed. So the two of them will be like, you know, mono amono (ph), while the senators, this is the very same Senate committee, by the way, that, if you remember, just slammed Kenneth Lay when Kenneth Lay came up and took the Fifth and every one of the committee members went and hit him as hard as they could. So they're now going to have the opportunity to basically try to embarrass Jeffrey Skilling by pointing to Sherron Watkins' testimony right there at the same table.

ZAHN: Yes, that could create some interesting fireworks, just the physical proximity there.

Kate, before we let -- we let you go, Enron obviously is going to be a campaign issue...

SNOW: Yes.

ZAHN: ... as is the budget. How are both sides shaping up in...

SNOW: Yes.

ZAHN: ... the preparation for that battle?

SNOW: Well you see Democrats have already seized on Enron. You've heard them say that the Bush administration has mismanaged its budget like Enron mismanaged their finances. You also hear them talking a lot about Social Security and retirement security that's because Democrats think they've got a real issue when it comes to people feeling insecure about -- look what happened to all those Enron people, they're losing their 401(k)s. People feel insecure about Social Security.

So to react to that, something interesting you might see this week out of the House, Republican leaders are thinking about a bill. They're pushing a bill that would send out kind of an embossed certificate to every senior citizen, every retiree, I think over 62 years old, that would say, Paula, you're going to get your Social Security. Don't worry, you're going to get all of your benefits. And it would be this embossed certificate they would get in the mail.

Why are they doing that? I mean it's pretty obvious, they want to fight back preemptively against the idea that Democrats are going to try to do in advertisements and political advertisements which is Republicans don't care about Social Security, they're not worried about your money. So they would send this out as sort of a preemptive strike to say, no, no, no, we really do care about Social Security and you're going to get it all, don't worry.

ZAHN: Well, Jonathan, that sounds like a strategy that just could have legs and work, doesn't it?

KARL: Well (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you can almost see the ads right now the Democrats will use saying Republicans are going to take away your Social Security. So if Republicans can have these little embossed cards in everybody's pockets, all senior's pockets, you know they can say, hey, you've got the card, you're going to get your check. Although, Paula, I wouldn't necessarily try to bring that embossed card anywhere to try to get anything for it.

SNOW: Yes, it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

KARL: But it could be a good political...

SNOW: A lot of symbolism.

KARL: ... symbolism, yes.

SNOW: A lot of symbolism here on Capitol Hill.

ZAHN: Well when you get a hold of one of those cards, we want to see it, OK?

KARL: Absolutely.

ZAHN: All right, Kate Snow, Jonathan Karl, thanks so much. You really do -- don't they -- don't they look lovely against that background?

JACK CAFFERTY (?), CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely.

KARL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CAFFERTY: Who's going to pay for the cards.

SNOW: It's nice out.

ZAHN: Oh yes, Jack has a question for you, Jonathan.

SNOW: Yes.

ZAHN: Who's going to pay -- you can ask it, you've got a mike on.

CAFFERTY: No, I just thought -- I'm just curious who's going -- who's...

SNOW: I think they're still -- yes, Jack, they're still developing the idea so I don't know if they're going to be cards or -- last night I talked to the spokesman for the speaker and he said he thought more like certificates, paper.

CAFFERTY: But is this...

SNOW: So...

CAFFERTY: Is this going to come out of the taxpayer's pocket?

SNOW: Probably.

KARL: Yes, you'll be paying for this, Jack.

SNOW: Probably.

KARL: Absolutely.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that's great. I just...

ZAHN: Jack, only you and the people in your household.

KARL: Maybe it'll come out of the Social Security trust fund, you know. Social Security trust fund (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

CAFFERTY: Yes, I wanted to set a little something aside at home so I'd have it available to cover (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's going to be like one of those things from like Ed McMahon, like Jack Cafferty, you have just won the Social Security (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CAFFERTY: That's right. That's right.

SNOW: But they're serious -- they're serious about it. I mean they feel like that would make a commitment to people, that that would -- you know that would show that they're earnest about making sure you get your benefits, Jack. ZAHN: All right, thank you, Kate. Thank you, Jon.

KARL: Thanks, guys.

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