Federal File

The debate over President Clinton's Corporation for National Service is so intense that a fight almost broke out last week over a seemingly minor matter: whether a corporation official would be considered a witness or an aide to a witness at a congressional hearing.

The dispute culminated when Harris Wofford, the service agency's chief executive, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., a congressional critic of the agency, ended up in a shouting match in the hallway of a House office building. At one point, Mr. Wofford was wagging his finger at Mr. Hoekstra's chest.

Eventually the two came to terms under which Mr. Hoekstra's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee may be able to question Gary Kowalczyk, the corporation's acting chief financial officer, about 100 irregularities uncovered in a recent audit...