Mike Thompson: “Well, I understand it might be desirable for the President to do that. For my part, I would rather leave it up to the…”

“Well, I understand it might be desirable for the President to do that. For my part, I would rather leave it up to the President to decide when he wants to negotiate with foreign leaders on these matters. I will also suggest that when the President makes the determination under this enhanced control provision, that an item on one of these lists would constitute a significant threat to the national security, he ought to be given quite a bit of leeway. It might be a good idea to negotiate with foreign leaders; it might be a good idea to do a lot of things. We have to ask ourselves how many hoops we want the President to jump through if, in fact, he makes a determination that it constitutes a significant threat to national security. I am not trying to negotiate the details of the bill with my friend today. This is one of the benefits of discussing this today and one of the reasons we are not ready to put a bill to bed. I don't claim to have all the answers to it. I haven't had a chance to think all the details through. But I believe we really need to ask ourselves how many hoops we want the President to have to jump through before he can exercise some authority when he makes a determination that there is a significant threat to the national security.”