Barney Frank: “I support this amendment. I am pleased that we have been able to come together in a process that is providing some…”

“I support this amendment. I am pleased that we have been able to come together in a process that is providing some improvement. As I've said, I think there have been people in both the executive and legislative branches that have exaggerated the impact of these, but they are helpful. I do want to make one point, though, that it is true that the President has been one of those who has been a proponent of this--it's been a very bipartisan and very cooperative process--and there is a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the bills. I do want to make it clear because there will be some subsequent amendments that I think will be controversial. This one is not. The next two are actually not, I believe. But then there are one, two, three, four that may be. I want to make it very clear that the President's Statement of Administration Policy, which supports the bills--or the bill, with the package of bills within it--in general is in no way--and I speak for the administration on this, having talked to them--an expression of opposition to the later amendments, none of the later amendments--and Members will debate them one way or the other, although I deeply regret that the Rules Committee only gave us 5 minutes to debate controversial amendments on each side. I think that's a denigration of process. I would note we're probably going to finish up before noon today, or maybe 12:30.…”