James A. Leach: “I would only say to my distinguished chairman, I realize how difficult these circumstances are. There is one amendment…”

“I would only say to my distinguished chairman, I realize how difficult these circumstances are. There is one amendment in that en bloc circumstance, the Neugebauer amendment, that I think the House should be alerted to. It could put us down a slippery slope of reviewing peer review scientific approaches; and since it is targeted at a program in a university in my district, I am particularly sensitive to it. But unrelated to the fact that it is in my district, this subject is something that I hope in the conference will get the attention of Members in terms of the overriding principle of whether we ought to be political seers overriding scientific peers. Secondly, in the statement I will submit for the Record, I have outlined a reason for this particular grant that is, in my view, again very compelling, which makes a political attack on it quite, again in my view, uncompelling. So at this time, I simply ask respectfully that the chairman and the ranking member give this perspective serious consideration as you move to conference. Mr. Chairman, I recognize that sometimes committees decide to accept a series of amendments to bills ``en bloc'' on the House floor and then review them further in conference.…”