Whitewater Investigation Halted For Now Funding Isn’t Renewed, But Gop To Try Again Next Week

Senate Democrats used a procedural tactic on Thursday to force at least a temporary halt to the Senate’s Whitewater inquiry, which they denounced as a political witch hunt.

Republicans, led by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato of New York, have spent the last eight months raising questions relating to President and Hillary Clinton’s business dealings in Arkansas, and the actions of Clinton administration officials concerning investigations into the failure of an Arkansas savings and loan association. The thrift was owned by James McDougal, a business partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater real estate venture, and collapsed in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of $60 million.

The one-year authority for a special Whitewater panel expired on Thursday, and Democrats refused to give the required unanimous consent to a request by D’Amato for an indefinite extension and an additional $600,000 for the inquiry.

Another vote on the matter is expected next week.

Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, said Republicans sought to continue the committee’s operation to snipe at the White House. “The motivation is very, very clear,” Daschle said. “It is politics, pure and simple.”

Democrats also pointed to an announcement on Thursday by officials of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that they would not proceed with a lawsuit against Hillary Rodham Clinton’s law firm as further evidence that the Senate inquiry should not continue.

But D’Amato asserted that Democrats had something to hide.

“With its action today and over the past few days, the minority has sent the unmistakable message that it wants to prevent the American people from learning the full facts about Whitewater,” he said.

The Senate opened the first investigation into Whitewater in the summer of 1994, when it was controlled by Democrats.

After the Republicans took control of the Senate in January 1995, they moved with bipartisan support to form the special Whitewater committee headed by D’Amato.

D’Amato argued on Thursday that his panel needed more time because the White House had impeded the Whitewater inquiry by refusing to surrender some documents.