John B. Breaux: “I think the Senator is right on target. We have two differences of opinion about how to approach this matter, and there…”

“I think the Senator is right on target. We have two differences of opinion about how to approach this matter, and there is not a dime's worth of difference between the two. The easiest way to figure out how to reach a legitimate compromise is to vote cloture, and then we can negotiate what is the proper approach to this legislation. If you read both offerings in this particular area, we will give the President essentially the authority to take away collective bargaining rights of American workers if they are related to national security or threats of national security. We also basically give him the authority to make management changes. I will address this quickly. If you are going to make management changes, do you want the people whose jobs are being changed to be involved in that decision or do you want to take away their collective bargaining rights, one, and tell them arbitrarily what they are going to have to do? What type of a worker are you going to have if you take that away and then not even let them talk about what their duties are going to be. You are going to have a very reluctant workforce, which is not in the interest of this country from a homeland security standpoint. We have suggested models after the IRS, which say let them come in and negotiate, talk, and find out what their duties are going to be.”