Mike Thompson: “I must say, and have said to my friends, Senator Gramm and Senator Enzi, that my concern goes deeper than some of the…”

“I must say, and have said to my friends, Senator Gramm and Senator Enzi, that my concern goes deeper than some of the details we are working on right now. Unless some very substantial changes can be made, which I do not anticipate, I could not support the bill. I will not be the one standing in the way of proceeding on the bill, but I reserve all my rights as we proceed and discuss it. It does need full discussion. It is a very serious matter. I am afraid it has not yet gotten the attention it deserves. We will have some amendments, hopefully, to improve the bill as we go along. I agree with my friend from Texas that it is a different time. We are not in the cold war anymore. No one can put the technological genie back in the bottle. But our export policies have quite adequately taken that into consideration. In fact, many on this side of the aisle, people around the country, have been quite critical of this administration because of the liberality or the looseness of the export controls that we are operating under now, under Executive order.”