United States Senate Whitewater Committee facts for kids

The Senate Whitewater Committee was a special group of senators in the United States Senate. They were formed during the time when Bill Clinton was president. Their main job was to look into something called the Whitewater controversy.

What Was the Whitewater Committee?

This committee was officially named the "Special Committee to Investigate Whitewater Development Corporation and Related Matters." It was set up to examine a land deal from the 1970s. This deal involved a company called Whitewater Development Corporation. The committee wanted to see if anything improper happened.

How the Committee Started

The Senate decided to create this committee on May 17, 1995. Almost all senators, 96 out of 99, voted to approve it. This showed that many people felt it was important to investigate the matter.

How the Investigation Worked

The committee held many meetings, called hearings. These hearings lasted for a long time, about 13 months. They spent over 300 hours listening to people speak. They also collected more than 10,000 pages of spoken information and 35,000 pages of written statements. Nearly 250 different people shared their stories or information.

After all this work, the committee wrote a long report. This report was 800 pages long and was finished on June 18, 1996.

Public Interest in the Hearings

Even though the hearings were very long, most people didn't pay much attention. They were shown on a TV channel called C-SPAN, which broadcasts government events. However, they were not shown on the main TV news channels. Newspapers wrote about them, but they rarely made the big evening news shows. Many news reporters thought the hearings were "boring" because there weren't many exciting moments. The committee members couldn't find any clear evidence of wrongdoing.

Key People in the Committee

Several important people led the work of the Senate Whitewater Committee:

• Al D'Amato was a Republican senator from New York. He was the main leader, called the chair, of the committee.
• Paul Sarbanes was a Democratic senator from Maryland. He was the top Democrat on the committee, known as the ranking member.
• Michael Chertoff worked as the main lawyer for the Republican side of the committee.
• Richard Ben-Veniste was the main lawyer for the Democratic side of the committee.