Bill Clinton: “Well, I don't expect that we will discuss that since that decision is behind us now, assuming we continue our…”

“Well, I don't expect that we will discuss that since that decision is behind us now, assuming we continue our cooperation here. But I believe that the question of whether this whole certification system is the best way of dealing with the fight against drugs and securing cooperation is a legitimate question. There's a lot of debate about it in the Congress now. Congressman Lee Hamilton made a public statement about it just a couple of days ago. I know that the Speaker and others have voiced their questions about it. And what I have tried to do here is to set in motion a little bipartisan discussion in the Congress about it, try to evaluate whether we should keep the system we have and, if we change it, what we put in its place, what they believe the best alternatives are. It's the sort of thing that it's easy to demagog if you seek to change it, but if it's not working, we at least ought to--or if there's serious reason to doubt whether it's the most effective way to fight drugs, then we ought to have an honest evaluation of it. I know General McCaffrey has some questions about it. So what I've asked our people to do is to try to get knowledgeable people in the Congress together on both sides and really take a hard look at this and make a recommendation to us and see if we can't make a bipartisan decision here and move forward with that. You don't want to do something which appears on the surface to be tough but actually undermines the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective is to reduce the volume of drugs coming into the United States. Ms. Shogren. Right.”