Mike Thompson: “Will the Senator agree the issue is whether or not it is good policy to require the Secretary to cut off an end user, if…”

“Will the Senator agree the issue is whether or not it is good policy to require the Secretary to cut off an end user, if postshipment verification is not allowed, but would give the Secretary discretion to cut off or not cut off a country that denies postshipment verification? It seems that is the issue. The point my friend from Arizona was making was in some cases you have a country, such as China, where we have a situation with them where we request postshipment verifications for various sites, and they agree to a few and remain silent on the rest. They never say no; they just never say yes. This is a country decision. Under the legislation, the Secretary does have the discretion, and I can see an argument for giving him discretion, but I can also see a very good argument, and more persuasive, that as it makes good policy sense to require the Secretary to cut off, as a matter of national policy, an end user if they behave in such a way, that the same logic would make it good policy to cut off a country if they are, in fact, calling the shots, as is often the case.”