Barbara Boxer: “the Reid-Levin Rockefeller-Biden amendment is very clear. I will read it again so that, hopefully, the American people…”

“the Reid-Levin Rockefeller-Biden amendment is very clear. I will read it again so that, hopefully, the American people know what we are debating. This is what we are debating: No Federal employee who discloses, or has disclosed, classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be permitted to hold a security clearance for access to such information. Why is this important? It is important because when this story broke, CIA agents and folks at the CIA were absolutely horrified that the name of a covert agent had been leaked, putting that covert agent in grave danger. Now who could vote against this? I don't know. We are going to find out. But let me state what I think it is about. Either you stand on the side of these brave undercover operatives who risk their lives every day, without people with a political agenda going after them to reveal them, or you stand on the side of those who would play politics and have played politics with their identity. Why did it happen in this particular case? Because this particular administration did not like what they heard from a particular gentleman, and to punish him, they went after his wife. And they didn't care. You cannot tell me because you didn't use her everyday name that it was hard to find out who she was.…”