89 



Mr. Kessler. I cannot put any confidential sources at risk, and 

 I am sure you would understand that. Furthermore, I am — again, 

 I would be happy to work with the Chsdr 



Mr. BILIRAKIS. No, sir. Forgive me; as I said before, we are all 

 happy to work with the Chair, but I am sure the Chair would be 

 the first one to tell you that this is a subcommittee hearing and 

 we are all members of this subcommittee and you are talking about 

 working with the Chair. 



I don't think the Chair would ever hide from the rest of us any 

 information that they have; the Chair would make that available. 

 So you are sharing information with the entire subcommittee. 



I didn't think this was a combative tjrpe of thing that I am ask- 

 ing for. 



Mr. Kessler. Congressman, any documents that you are entitled 

 to, I would be happy to provide that. We would be happy to work 

 with you on that. 



I am not prepared to release documents that could, one, jeopard- 

 ize any further investigation, because yes. Congressman, there is 

 information that we have that we have not yet presented that we 

 are still investigating. 



Two, there is information that could jeopardize sources. Three, I 

 think that I tried to follow a rule here in today's testimony — and 

 I hope you would appreciate it — that unless the name of a company 

 was public or the document was a public document, that I did not 

 mention that company by name. 



Mr. BILIRAKIS. I noticed that. 



Mr. Kessler. And I try to stay away from that just as I did last 

 time. 



Mr. BiLiRAKis. In your continuing investigations, are you telling 

 us that there — Mr. Chairman, you know, I am trying — ^you know, 

 you have never known me to be militant, but I am trying to under- 

 stand here. Are you saying that there is information that would ba- 

 sically be in conflict with your charts and some of the things that 

 you said the other day? 



Mr. Kessler. No, I am not. I am saying that there is additional 

 information we are investigating. We have an established proce- 

 dure for handling requests of Members of Congress and we will use 

 that process to consider any requests. 



Mr. BILIRAKIS. Well — in other words, we are talking about, this 

 is a subjective thing on your part? In terms of you will decide what 

 documents you think are in order for this committee? 



Mr. Waxman. Will the gentleman yield to me? 



I think what Dr. Kessler is saying is that if there are cases 

 where documents are submitted voluntarily in a cooperative way by 

 the companies or anybody within his jurisdiction, that would be 

 made available, but if there is information being furnished to him 

 by a whistleblower or confidential source, neither you nor I would 

 expect him to give us that information or information submitted by 

 a company with the expectation that the information be kept con- 

 fidential. 



He has to respect that, and that means he has to respect that 

 with regard to you and me and other Members of Congress. 



Mr. BILIRAKIS. There is no distinction here between majority and 

 minority? 



