Porter Goss: “Mr. Chairman, as the gentlewoman from California knows, I admire her persistence and her wisdom and her leadership in…”

“Mr. Chairman, as the gentlewoman from California knows, I admire her persistence and her wisdom and her leadership in trying to make the best possible piece of legislation we can out of the lockbox, and she certainly deserves a great deal of credit for getting it this far down the track. We have been wrestling with this problem of the outyears, trying to find a way to make it work. We want to do it. We have not been able to find the exact language. We find there are serious problems when we are talking with programs as opposed to dollars. Of course, we are reminded of the fact that we do our appropriations annually, at least at this point. So we have felt that we had the opportunity to come in and do what the gentlewoman has proposed in a way that would work and is agreed upon by all the players. I would very much like to accommodate the amendment, and we tried, as I said. My view is we should certainly not oppose what you are proposing, and I would be very happy to immediately say that I embrace it.”