Ralph Lee Abraham: “I wish to indicate I was actually speaking on the floor at the time that the initial exchange of documents took place…”

“I wish to indicate I was actually speaking on the floor at the time that the initial exchange of documents took place, but from the point at which I concluded my remarks and began discussing this issue with the Senator from Michigan and the Senator from Washington, it was certainly my understanding that the intention, and certainly our side's intention, in urging the word ``recommend'' be employed was to make precisely the distinction which my colleague from Michigan just indicated. Certainly there was an important element to that change from my point of view, as I know there was from his. I am hopeful as the process moves forward that it will do so in the constructive way we have outlined. We ought to make clear a rulemaking procedure is where ``a proposed set of rules'' would be the term of art used. For a study, which is what we intended here--a recommendation is different from the proposal that might stem from an actual rulemaking. That is my interpretation of the discussions in which I at least took part.”