Sam Gejdenson: “I think, first of all, for us to effectuate a policy, it is clear that we need to have a product that can either be…”

“I think, first of all, for us to effectuate a policy, it is clear that we need to have a product that can either be signed by the President or have a congressional override. Since it is clear there will be no congressional override on this legislation, what we are essentially doing is playing chicken in the center of the road until there is some calamity. I might tell the gentleman from New York one story. One of our officers at the State Department during the great government shutdown, I do not know if this really caused it, was on his way to meet with the Kurds to try to broker a deal where the Kurds would all come together. Well, we had the government shutdown, and it turned out that his travel plans were deemed nonessential, and the meeting never happened, and that is where all the turmoil happened with some of the Kurds going over to the Iranians and others. I would say that it is too important for the United States to continue to tie this up in a process that has excluded the minority party completely in this final presentation and that deals with an issue that we know will not become law.”