Bill Nelson: “I think what the majority leader said was absolutely essential, that the work product that comes out of the Intelligence…”

“I think what the majority leader said was absolutely essential, that the work product that comes out of the Intelligence Committee and then the Judiciary Committee be bipartisan in nature. We do not want to repeat what happened in the first week of August, in which there was so much misinformation and mistrust on both sides of the aisle. It was very difficult to cobble together a bill, which the intelligence community told us was essential because of the increased traffic, which is otherwise defined as increased communications of some indication that there might be the planning stages of an additional attack upon the United States. In that atmosphere of warnings, we were told we had to pass a bill. It was in that crisis atmosphere that a piece of legislation was cobbled together in the midst of mistrust and misinformation on this floor. But the safeguard was put on it that what was passed and ultimately signed into law by the President was only good for 6 months. Therefore, in now constructing the permanent law, we need to come together.”