GUY RAZ, host:
Official Washington isn't waiting for the inauguration to get on with business. Congress reconvenes on Tuesday with a number of new faces and some familiar ones doing new things. One of them is California Democrat Henry Waxman. He's been a member of Congress for more than 30 years. And this week, he takes over as chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Earlier, we spoke with Congressman Waxman, and I asked him about the first major issue Congress will tackle - President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan and, specifically, how to pay for it.
Representative HENRY WAXMAN (Democrat, California): There's no question that it will provide a greater deficit in the short term, but I think almost all economists understand from the history of the past Depression in the '30s that what was needed was a gigantic stimulus to the economy with public spending. When the private spending is not taking place and people are losing their jobs, that causes deflation and it feeds on itself. In order to turn this around, we have to have a great deal of public spending, public spending most likely in the private sector, so that we can give a boost to the economy and get it going in the right direction.
RAZ: Now Congressman Waxman, I want to ask you about the auto industry for a moment. You, of course, won control over the Energy and Commerce Committee from Michigan Democrat John Dingell. He, of course, has strong ties to the auto industry. You don't. You've called for stricter regulation to protect the environment. So are you planning to tie some of the bailout money for the auto industry to something like higher fuel efficiency standards?
Representative WAXMAN: I think we have to demand higher fuel efficiency standards from the automobile industry, not only because we don't want to help an industry that is going to make our environmental problems worse, but because the cars for the future that are going to sell in this country will be those that are more fuel-efficient.
RAZ: Your last job in the last Congress was as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and it's fair to say you were probably a thorn in the side of the Bush administration. But now with a Democrat in the White House and with a Democratic-controlled Congress, how do you make sure, how do you guarantee that the Obama administration is going to be held accountable?
Representative WAXMAN: I think that oversight is as important a function of the Congress as is legislation. We need to see how programs are working or not working in order to revise them or eliminate some of these programs. And we have to hold the executive branch accountable.
RAZ: But will you hold them as accountable as you held the Bush folks?
Representative WAXMAN: Well, I think it's important to do that. It shouldn't be a partisan matter. It should be an important function of the Congress to keep our government open and accountable.
RAZ: You, of course, led a five-year investigation into President Bush's allegations that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Africa. That, of course, was later found to be false. We can't go into the details of your committee's investigation, but I want to find out, I want to ask you, do you think it's time now to let go of this, to drop it? Or do you think that this investigation needs to continue?
Representative WAXMAN: I think we need to have a continuation of the investigation into wrongdoing by our government. I don't think it's the job of Congress. We have too much else to do. But I'd like to see some independent committees established, as we've just done for checking on expenditures or war profiteering in Iraq. We ought to do that as well for the galling and maybe criminal violations by people in power.
I make no pre-judgment about it. But looking at the argument for getting us into war that Saddam Hussein had possible nuclear weapons, I think we have a good case to make that there were a lot of people lying in the Bush administration, maybe to themselves, but certainly to the American people to get us into war.
RAZ: California Representative Henry Waxman. He is the incoming chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Congressman Waxman, thanks so much for your time.
Representative WAXMAN: Thank you.