News From . . .
The House Policy Committee
Christopher Cox, Chairman
Entire House Leadership Hits Clinton for Violating Law
on PRC Military Companies
WASHINGTON (Friday, September 24, 1999)-The
ten top leaders in the House of Representatives have written President Clinton
to demand immediate compliance with U.S. law requiring public disclosure of the
PRC's People's Liberation Army-owned companies doing business in the United
States.
"The Clinton-Gore administration's failure to obey the law is
knowing, willful, and longstanding," said House Policy Chairman Christopher
Cox, who released the letter today. "Eight
months after the deadline in the law, it is essential that the President comply.
By violating this statutory obligation, the President shows contempt not
only for the law but for Congressional oversight and the national security."
Clinton signed the Fowler Amendment into law October
17, 1998. It requires that a list
of companies controlled by Communist China's People's Liberation Army be
published in the Federal Register by January 15, 1999.
The
text of the letter follows:
September 21, 1999
Dear
Mr. President:
On
July 19, 1999, we wrote to you to ask why your administration has failed to
comply with Public Law 105-261, which you signed into law on October 17, 1998,
and to insist on immediate compliance.
That
law requires the executive branch to publish a listing of Chinese People's
Liberation Army-controlled firms operating in the United States.
The
deadline for compliance with the law was January 15, 1999.
You are now in violation of the law, and have been throughout this year.
Your
reply to Congress' formal inquiry into your noncompliance was itself delayed
by nearly two months. (It is dated
September 7, 1999, and we received it a few days later.)
Of greater concern is that your reply is wholly inadequate.
You state that you have asked the Secretary of Defense to take
responsibility for compliance with the law, but he wrote us in August 1999 to
say that the Defense Intelligence Agency was not doing this work and that some
other executive branch agency would have to be identified.
We have heard nothing further from any other agency of the executive
branch excusing this violation of Public Law 105-261.
We
would appreciate not only a more complete reply to our original letter, but also
your administration's respect for the law you signed, exemplified by your
immediate compliance with it.
The top ten
Congressional Leaders signing the letter were:
The
Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert
The Majority
Leader, Dick Armey
The Majority Whip,
Tom Delay
The Conference Chairman, J.C. Watts
The Policy Committee Chairman, Christopher
Cox
The Conference Vice Chair, Tillie K. Fowler
The Conference Secretary, Deborah Pryce
The NRCC Chairman, Tom Davis
The
Chief Deputy Whip, Roy Blunt
The
Rules Committee Chairman, David Dreier
#
# #
|
