Haley Stevens: “I am, as are the Senators from North Dakota, quite worried about this amendment. It is my intention to ask the Senate to…”

“I am, as are the Senators from North Dakota, quite worried about this amendment. It is my intention to ask the Senate to vote. It is my understanding that they want a vote on this amendment. It is my intention to ask every Senator to vote for the amendment. It is a political season. I understand that. I consider this amendment to be a slam at the intelligence community. I can tell the Senate that there is more money than this available. If I tried to discuss the amount of money which is available, I would be violating my oath as far as confidential and classified material. For reasons of national security, I cannot elaborate on that. I arranged for the two Senators from North Dakota to be briefed about the programs which Senator Inouye and I know about. We urged them not to offer this amendment. There are many funds dedicated in our bill for the global war on terrorism. There are funds in our bill to continue the search for Osama bin Laden. That has never lapsed. It does not need this amendment. The classified annex accompanying this bill provides details of classified programs in this bill, and they are available to every Senator in room 405 if they want to question my view. Those were offered to the Senators from North Dakota. I do not know whether they took advantage of that or not. We cannot discuss those programs here. We would jeopardize the lives of many people if we did so.…”