Mike Levin: “first of all, I congratulate Senator McCain. I do not think there is anybody in this body who speaks with greater…”

“first of all, I congratulate Senator McCain. I do not think there is anybody in this body who speaks with greater authority on the subject matter he has spoken to in this amendment. I commend him for the distinction he is making. It is a critical distinction. In addition to the fact that the field manual is there for everybody to see and has historic meaning, the difference between the McCain amendment and the one which was offered by the Senator from Virginia--another difference--is that the field manual is a public document. You can read what is in the field manual. The Secretary of Defense memoranda too often have been classified ``unavailable.'' We have been spending sometimes months and years trying to just find out what is in those memoranda. So there is a very important difference between these two amendments in a number of regards. I very much believe that the first amendment, amendment No. 1557, is the way which is most consistent with our values. It makes it very clear, in public, what the authorities are and what the standards and criteria are. The contrast between that and something amorphous, which gives the Secretary of Defense a power he already has anyway, which is to issue regulations but to do so in secret and in a classified way, leads to more vagueness, more uncertainty, more conflict, more inability of Congress to perform oversight. So I commend the Senator from Arizona for this amendment.…”