Jerry Brown: “I am not totally dissatisfied with this rule although the love fest that is developing here would indicate that it is…”

“I am not totally dissatisfied with this rule although the love fest that is developing here would indicate that it is close to perfection, and I do find a few minor flaws in it. I observe that in title III of the bill there are a number of waivers of authorizing legislation on an appropriations bill. I have consistently over the years objected to having authorizing legislation on appropriations bills. I am becoming a little mellower in my old age that I am not condemning the Committee on Appropriations for doing this, or at least I am not condemning them as much as I used to condemn them. But I would like to point out, and I hope that this can be resolved either by colloquy during the processing of this bill or by further action with the Members of the other body in conference, there are certain problems with regard to some of these titles which are going to give us some headaches unless we do something about them. For example, the requirement contained in section 301 for the competition of maintenance and operating contracts by the laboratories of the Department of Energy is something that I thoroughly approve of, nevertheless requires some transitional language.”