Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee - The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2007

Interview

Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee - The Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2007

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REP. WATERS: Thank you very much.

I will recognize myself for five minutes.

Let me welcome our witnesses and just raise some very basic questions of you.

I do not know all of the details of the establishment of the International Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance, so I'd like to ask you when this commission was established, were you specifically given the ability to negotiate this legal peace deal that you negotiated?

MR. KENNEDY: Thank you, Madame Chair.

The state insurance commissioners here in the United States in the mid and late '90s noticed a serious number of Holocaust-era claims that were not being resolved. They themselves started to talk about a mechanism that might deal with this, and this mechanism ultimately led to ICHEIC. At the same time, the U.S. government, represented very able by Stuart Eizenstat, began negotiations with the various countries involved, especially Germany.

REP. WATERS: I understand that generally.

MR. KENNEDY: And the --

REP. WATERS: I want to know about the specificity of the authorization. Were you authorized -- was the commission authorized to negotiate legal peace?

MR. KENNEDY: Well, the kind of legal peace that is offered, the commitment of the government to seek dismissals, is something that the negotiators felt was inherent in the executive's powers to reach --

REP. WATERS: This was born out of the negotiations, but there was nothing specific in the establishment of the commission that gave authority to negotiate and settle on the so-called legal peace. Is that correct? Is that -- would you accept that as correctly identifying what power you had or did not have relative to establishing this legal peace agreement?

MR. KENNEDY: Well, the agreement covered a number of things, and --

REP. WATERS: Did it give you the authority to negotiate legal peace agreement?

MR. KENNEDY: Well, I would first --

REP. WATERS: Yes or no?

MR. KENNEDY: I was not present in those negotiations.

REP. WATERS: Oh. So you are not -- you don't know whether or not --

MR. KENNEDY: But --

REP. WATERS: -- that authority did --

MR. KENNEDY: -- the authority, I believe, is inherent in the executive's ability to conduct foreign relations.

REP. WATERS: You think it's implied, but not specific, is that right?

MR. KENNEDY: I'd be happy to take that question, Madam Chairman.

REP. WATERS: Do you know if anyone sought the opinion or support of Congress in the negotiation of that legal peace agreement?

MR. KENNEDY: Again, I'd like a chance to go back and review the record and get back to you, Madam Chairman.

REP. WATERS: Is it safe to say that Congress was not involved in that agreement? Do you know of any bill or resolution that was sought or passed in Congress that would support that agreement?

MR. KENNEDY: I know of no bill that was sought prior to the education, ma'am -- I'm sorry, to the conclusion of the negotiation.

REP. WATERS: So then this bill that's before the Congress today would be the first time that we have been engaged on that so-called legal peace agreement, and we were not asked before to give an opinion, to support, to question that agreement that was made, even though the significance of this peace agreement is such that it would deny the opportunity for survivors to even address the issue. So given that it was that important, the Congress of the United States was not engaged on it at all.

MR. KENNEDY: Well, Madam Chairman, I don't think that that statement that there is -- that we deny Americans the right to sue in court is quite accurate. The ability to deny Americans to go into court -- the opportunity to go into court -- would be something very serious. Americans can go into court. Nothing in the executive agreement prohibits or prevents people --

REP. WATERS: So would you restate just for me --

MR. KENNEDY: -- it simply states that the executive -- that the government will seek dismissal on all valid legal grounds.

REP. WATERS: Okay. Thank you. I think that's very clear.

And I will now recognize for five minutes Ms. Maloney.

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