Chuck Grassley: “I rise to speak on the maritime bill that is before us. I, first of all, want to compliment the leadership of the…”

“I rise to speak on the maritime bill that is before us. I, first of all, want to compliment the leadership of the Senate, plus the managers of this legislation, because we are bringing up maritime legislation in the daylight. The last time it was brought up it was the last item on an omnibus bill, a very big omnibus bill. It was at 9 o'clock at night. It was just before we were taking a week's recess. And it was to finance a subsidy for the maritime industry. For something that costly, for something that important, it seems to me it is not something that we should try to sneak through in the dark of night as the last piece of business because controversy that is connected with it might not be so welcomed to be answered. And, consequently, we just avoided all the necessary discussion we ought to have of very costly legislation. So here we are not doing it on a Friday. We are not doing it late in the evening. And I want to compliment the leadership for bringing up a very important new program, a very costly new program, at a time when it can be given some legitimate consideration.”