Richard Shelby: “I rise to oppose the Dodd amendment, and my opposition is this: First, the Dodd amendment would give foreign…”

“I rise to oppose the Dodd amendment, and my opposition is this: First, the Dodd amendment would give foreign organizations--foreign organizations--extraordinary statutory privileges to expedite and to compel declassification of U.S. national security information. Yes, it would give foreign organizations--not us--extraordinary statutory privileges to expedite and compel declassification of U.S. national security information, something that we have not ever had. Creating such statutory rights, which the Dodd amendment, if it is adopted and becomes law, will do, also opens the door to foreign organizations to take intelligence, law enforcement, defense and foreign policy agencies to court to compel special declassification requests. Second, to complete the review of the numerous documents that fall under this amendment in just 4 months--4 months--agencies will be forced to reassign personnel, many of whom would otherwise be carrying out important mission functions, or risk being sued by foreign organizations for noncompliance. Imagine that, think about this, I ask my colleagues this afternoon. Third, this amendment offered by the Senator from Connecticut is woefully inadequate in protecting intelligence sources and methods and, as a result, will chill current and future sources from providing the CIA with critical information--the very information that policymakers need to address human rights and other important foreign policy issues in many countries.”