Porter Goss: “what we are involved in here is obviously a moving negotiation, and a number of things have happened in the last couple…”

“what we are involved in here is obviously a moving negotiation, and a number of things have happened in the last couple of votes on this in this very difficult area of trying to come to a compromise that will hold together a working block of votes to get on with the benefits of this legislation and to make it as good as possible and still attract a majority. A couple of things need to be pointed out here. Mr. Chairman, the three particular areas of trouble that we wanted to discuss at this time were to get a further explanation on when we are talking about affected areas that are going to be subject to regulation, who sets those boundaries and how that happens. In a moment I am going to yield to my friend, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Tauzin], for that. The second was an area where after the vote last night I had several Members, particularly from the Midwest, come to me and suggest they had a difficult time with my amendment that went to the total parcel, and they had not supported us because of concerns they had in explaining to me about prairie potholes and other types of situations that are very important, but somewhat unique to that part of the country, and they felt they did not understand it properly. The third area was the question of the small lot owners. I am satisfied by moving this percentage to 20 percent, we still protect the small lot owners either way from unreasonable takings.”