Bill Nelson actually said...

"It has been reported that Intel informed Chinese companies of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities before notifying the U.S. Government."

"So it did not occur to you to notify them this past time, but you are going to in the future."

"There's no doubt that Russia and China will continue to exploit these and future vulnerabilities to advance their own interests."

"So let me see if I can restate what you just said. You think that 7 months, after having notified their customers, to notify the government is a rather long time."