Panel Votes to Expand Powers in Fund-Raising Probe

WASHINGTON —  After hours of bitter partisan sparring, the House committee probing fund-raising abuses in the last presidential campaign voted Wednesday to expand its powers in an effort to compel as many as 200 people tied to the controversy to submit to interviews under oath.

The new authority, which requires the approval of the full House, would allow investigators on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee to conduct depositions with witnesses and to work with the State Department to gain cooperation from foreign governments in tracking down witnesses and evidence.

While the beefed-up rules would give the committee additional clout, they likely would fall short of forcing testimony from some of the key figures in the scandal, including Democratic fund-raisers John Huang and Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie--who have either asserted their 5th Amendment rights or left the country.

The committee’s Democrats vehemently opposed granting the deposition authority because they said it allows Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) to order witness interviews without bipartisan consent.

“There is no precedent for what you are doing today,” Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) said. “It is an outrageous and partisan grab for power.”

Past committee chairmen have sometimes had the authority to act unilaterally in ordering witnesses to testify during investigations, but they have sought to develop bipartisanship. During the Iran-Contra investigation, for instance, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) received the approval of his GOP counterpart before conducting depositions, even though he could have acted alone.

Democrats urged Burton to adopt the more restrictive procedures of his predecessor as chairman. Former Rep. William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.) had to receive the consent of the committee’s ranking Democrat or a majority vote of the full committee before he could issue subpoenas in the investigation of the White House Travel Office.

Burton, however, insisted that the unprecedented nature of the fund-raising scandal requires the extra clout.

“We may be investigating the largest systemic and coordinated effort to funnel illegal funds into our national elections,” Burton said. “It is high time we found out whether the fundamental integrity of our government has been abused, exploited, compromised or jeopardized.”

After a heated daylong debate, Burton easily won the new power in a party-line vote. But Democrats suggested that Republicans’ effort to steamroll the minority could come back to haunt them.

To grant immunity to witnesses, an issue investigators will consider, Burton would have to win the support of two-thirds of the committee, which would require some Democratic support.