Joe Lieberman: “Part of what this dialogue has reflected is how much people on our side, including the folks from the Federal worker…”

“Part of what this dialogue has reflected is how much people on our side, including the folks from the Federal worker organizations, want to get this bill passed. There has been a substantial change from the original wording of the committee bill, which did allow an appeal to the Federal Labor Relations Authority from the decision of the Secretary--or administration in these cases. Effectively what we have done is to add two more criteria for the President to base his decision on as to whether union membership is inconsistent with national security, but we have not diminished the President's authority to make that decision. In other words, the same high authority he has had, sustained by the court decision we have cited and the two criteria that are there now, he has that same power under the two we have added. By adding two more standards, what we have done is to establish a kind of protection against truly arbitrary use by some future President of this extraordinary power the statute gives.”