Doug Bereuter: “I very much appreciate the way that the chairman started the discussion about our bipartisan cooperation in the House…”

“I very much appreciate the way that the chairman started the discussion about our bipartisan cooperation in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and actually being referred to by Members on both sides of the aisle today. I think that is one of our strong points that we need to work hard at preserving. My colleague from Iowa, my neighbor, said it is important to ask the tough questions in the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and I absolutely agree and I think all of us would. I do not believe we have been timid about doing that, not just recently, but throughout. And I believe that the administration and the intelligence community, regardless of the administration in the office at the moment, is likely to have more confidence that they can speak candidly, forthrightly, that we do not have to pull things out of them begrudgingly if they understand that we use that work well and that we keep the matters that are classified very carefully, close to the chest, and use it well. I would say that I think I would certainly disagree, and I have not heard it here, but I would certainly disagree with any broad-brush, sweeping indictment that there were severe problems with intelligence collection analysis or the way the policy makers used the information.”