Mr. DODD. I thank my colleague. I will wrap this up.

Madam President, the public wants us to present the facts impartially, come to our conclusions and then move on. And it bears repeating that after going through such a process last year, the Banking Committee concluded that there had been no violation of criminal statutes or ethical standards.

During this next stage, we must not get into political diversions and drag this thing out. The American people want us to get on with the business of creating jobs and expanding economic opportunity, of dealing with health care issues and education. They want us to tackle the hard problems that they face every day.

I think it was there sense of frustration with politics as usual, more than anything else, that created the changes in the Congress. We now have a Republican leadership, and every committee is chaired by that party. They now have an even greater responsibility to the public. They must elevate the good of the nation above politics and I hope that they will do so in proceeding with this matter.

Once again, I commend Senator D'Amato and Senator Sarbanes for putting together a fair resolution and for stating their determination to wrap this matter up by February of next year. I hope we can stick to that schedule and finish this job efficiently.

Finally, while the subject of the independent counsel statute is not the subject of this particular resolution, Madam President, I want to suggest that we revisit that legislation as soon as we can.

The idea of appointing an independent counsel was to keep politics out of these issues. Unfortunately, it seems that the statute may invite fishing expeditions. We need to be very careful about spending the taxpayers dollars in this way. Otherwise we will have some questionable expenditures. I was told the other day that someone was looking at a witnesses' grade school and high school transcripts. I hope that report is inaccurate because there is just no way to justify that kind of expenditure.

There is the potential for an independent counsel to run wild and we need to carefully monitor these matters. I caution those who would like to use independent counsels for political gain--regardless of whether it was a previous administration or this administration--that whatever goes around comes around. We would be well advised, in my view, to take a hard look at how some of these operations are being run.

Of course, Congress spends a great deal of money on these investigations. The Banking Committee spent about $400,000 last year, and this resolution authorizes another $950,000. But even that amount is only a fraction of what the independent counsel is spending. We are looking at almost $10 million spent by the independent counsel and that is just the beginning of it. That figure will go higher.

Of course, the Federal Government must investigate serious accusations of wrongdoing to maintain the public trust. But when it appears there are more Federal agents operating in Little Rock than there are in high-crime areas in certain parts of our country, then one ought to pause and look carefully at what we are doing.

Again, I know that the independent counsel statute is not the subject of this resolution. I do not want to inject a whole new subject of debate. But I think we ought to take another look at that law and make sure it is operating properly.

Again, I commend the chairman of the Banking Committee, my friend from New York, Senator D'Amato, and my colleague and friend from Maryland, Senator Sarbanes, for the fine job they have done in working out this resolution. We have a very difficult job in front of us. Hopefully, we will conduct our work thoroughly, fairly, and promptly, and in a manner that brings credit to this great body. I look forward to the effort.

Several Senators addressed the Chair.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.