Liz Saville Roberts: “I am still a little unclear in regard to the Reid amendment. I understand from three Senators--Senator Levin, Senator…”

“I am still a little unclear in regard to the Reid amendment. I understand from three Senators--Senator Levin, Senator Durbin, Senator Reid--that this also applies to public employees, i.e., Senators. If that is the case, if Members are included, one of the things we have to determine is that `` . . . to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be permitted to hold a security clearance for access to such information''--well, we don't have security clearances. By our election, we are deemed to be cleared for all security, and so we are not losing anything. If in fact somebody unintentionally came to the floor and in a public statement basically said or disclosed or has disclosed classified information including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, the answer to this is meaningless because we don't have a security clearance. They don't exist for Members. We are deemed to have a total clearance. And so I don't know what the remedy is. Again, if you do it unintentionally, I can tell you that is a slippery slope. There have been Members basically inadvertently saying things in the Chamber and in the public that could match this amendment. I am not going to get into names, but I think that has happened in the past without question. I know it happened in the Intelligence Committee, probably the Armed Services Committee, probably many other committees.…”