Mike Thompson: “I am fully cognizant of the fact that those of us who are newcomers to this legislative process, indeed, stand on the…”

“I am fully cognizant of the fact that those of us who are newcomers to this legislative process, indeed, stand on the shoulders of giants. There have been so many who have done so much in this area: Senator Grassley, Senator Lieberman, Senator Glenn and others. I am delighted to be a part of that, and to be part of this strong bipartisan effort here in my first opportunity to address this body. Mr. President, Senators Grassley and Glenn have very aptly gone over the details of this legislation. It is indeed complex. It involves several pieces of complex litigation and applicability to those already existing laws. They have gone over this in detail. I will not. I would like to make some basic observations, however, starting with the proposition that the people spoke in a very loud voice in this last election. We can disagree as to what the people were saying in many respects, and we do. We have spent a lot of time trying to interpret the voice of the people in these last few weeks. However, I think there is one thing we cannot or should not disagree on. That is, in large part, they were saying that they want a change of the way we have done business in Washington, DC.”