Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Congress is now close to passing and enacting an intelligence authorization bill for the first time since December 2004. Pending at the Senate desk is House bill H.R. 2701, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which the House passed on February 26, 2010. On behalf of Senator Bond and myself, I have filed an amendment to this House bill, and have asked the majority leader to request unanimous consent that the amendment, in the nature of a substitute, be approved and that the bill be sent back to the House for its final passage. For the benefit of my colleagues, I would like to describe the amendment and discuss why the passage of this legislation is of great importance to the Intelligence community and for oversight of intelligence. In all but three respects, this amendment is identical to Senate bill S. 3611, which the Senate passed in August by unanimous consent. That bill had been negotiated with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and had the support of the administration. However, the House did not act on that bill. Instead, last week, the House sent its legislation to the Senate for consideration.…”