Political Quotes

“I want to thank the Chair personally for the consideration shown me during this debate, and I apologize for being held up a little bit. This amendment would have made the last debate intelligible. I understand that 'intelligible' and 'intelligence' are not identical words, but they ought to have a closer correlation than they have today. Mr. Chairman, we have in the law a restriction on the American people knowing the gross number of the intelligence authorization and appropriation. All this amendment would do, and that is why I did not ask that it be considered as read and that the reading be dispensed with. I wanted it read in its entirety, because this does not say that categories or line items or even departmental breakdowns would be legal. It says the overall gross amount. Mr. Chairman, we just had a debate in which we were talking about percentage reductions and I was asked, as I am sure my colleagues on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence were asked by a number of Members, 'Well, how much is this?'.”