WASHINGTON - Newly elected Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) pledged yesterday to cooperate with Democrats in the upcoming 105th Congress but immediately declared that the Republican-controlled body must first investigate allegations of illegal fund-raising by the White House.
Appearing at a news conference to trumpet his re-election yesterday as the Senate's top Republican and to showcase his new GOP leadership team, Lott suggested investigations of campaign finance irregularities could dominate both Congress and the White House for the next six months or more.
Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) who was re-elected as minority leader, said the chamber's Democrats intend to place sweeping campaign reform legislation at the top of their agenda.
"Campaign finance reform is first and foremost our strongest desire as we begin to deal with the agenda of the 105th Congress," Daschle said, promising to introduce a bill to reduce the influence of money on campaigns. "We don't need another commission. What we need are more limits on spending and the influence of special interests."
Lott and Senate Republicans, however, made it clear that is not their immediate focus. GOP senators appear more intent on gleaning new details from the White House about ongoing reports alleging improper campaign contributions by Indonesian business executive Mochtar Riady.
Lott said the administration's refusal to seek appointment of an independent counsel to conduct an outside review of illegal campaign contributions, as well as news accounts of a 1993 letter from Riady containing policy proposals on a variety of Asian issues, make it imperative for the Senate to conduct its own examination.
"I don't think we can ignore that at all," Lott said, adding that Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to decline GOP requests for an independent counsel "actually increases significantly the need for us to have a good look at that."
Lott predicted the administration will eventually appoint an independent counsel, but said the Senate will not wait for that to happen. "We have our responsibilities, our requirements to look into these matters," he said. "There are letters that are coming out. It's looking, you know, more and more like we have got to get into it and find out what happened."
Lott is expected to assign the Senate Government Affairs Committee to conduct hearings into White House fund-raising activities. The Senate Rules Committee may consider possible legislation to prevent future problems.
Lott ruled out proposals by Daschle and other Democrats to adopt a constitutional amendment changing campaign finance laws. "That's not going to happen," he said.
"There's been a lot of allegations that laws were broken in regards to campaign finance," Nickles said. "It doesn't really do a whole lot of good to talk about changing the law until you find out what's the current status of the law, and has the law been broken."
AP PHOTO
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R- Miss.) posed yesterday after an orienatation session for the new senators.