Political Quotes

“One of the most important means that Congress has for conducting oversight of the intelligence community is through the annual authorization bill for the intelligence agency. Regrettably, we can't call it an annual Intelligence Authorization bill because Congress was unable to pass a bill in 2006 and 2007. Unfortunately, it appears we are on a path that may prevent us from getting an authorization bill signed for fiscal year 2008. When I assumed the duties as vice chairman of the select committee at the beginning of this Congress, one of my top priorities--and that of the committee--was to get an Intelligence Authorization bill signed into law. During the first month of our tenure, we tried to resuscitate the fiscal year 2007 bill but could not get it out of the Senate. When the time came to fashion a bill for fiscal year 2008, we had better luck. But as Louis Pasteur once said, 'Chance favors the prepared mind.' The committee worked hard to include in the chairman and vice chairman's mark only those provisions that had strong bipartisan support.”