Saxby Chambliss: “I would respond to the distinguished Senator from Missouri that without question, it is necessary, from a legal…”

“I would respond to the distinguished Senator from Missouri that without question, it is necessary, from a legal standpoint and from a practical standpoint, to get testimony and advice from the legal experts and our operators in the intelligence community to make sure there are no unintended consequences that come out of the final product from the Intelligence Committee. As the Senator will recall, we had some very heated debates on a couple of amendments within the committee. Very good debate on both sides of the issues. Sometimes, there were Democrats arguing with Democrats, other times Republicans were arguing with Republicans, but that is the nature of the Intelligence Committee. It operates in a bipartisan fashion to make sure we look at every aspect--legal, technical, as well as practical--to make sure we get it right. As the vice chairman knows and has been working to correct, some of the amendments adopted in committee were well intentioned but harmful to our collectors. With the input of the intelligence community the manager's amendment has been able to correct those unintended consequences while preserving the intent of the amendments. In this instance, I think we did get it right through engaging with our intelligence experts.”