Ben Cardin actually said...

"I do not know how we could proceed without giving the stakeholders an opportunity to be heard in this committee, including organized labor."

"At the very minimum, there needs to be a public hearing when we have the text of the legislation."

"I would just urge you to consider a public hearing before we mark up, and particularly to give non-governmental stakeholders an opportunity to be heard."

"If we could work on some language between now and mark-up, we would certainly hope we could work together in regards to that issue."