James Oberstar: “In response to the last commentary about the provision referring to citizenship, there are two types of nationals…”

“In response to the last commentary about the provision referring to citizenship, there are two types of nationals: citizens of the United States who are both citizens and nationals, and nationals of American Samoa and Swains Island, who owe an allegiance to the United States. The term ``national'' does not encompass aliens. It is intended to be broad to encompass those I have just mentioned. Now, our substitute, which the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske) and I offered on a bipartisan basis, has been characterized as being disruptive, creates a disruptive transition. But the maximum disruptive transition is right here in the manager's substitute providing that any private security firm be owned and controlled by a citizen of the United States to the extent the President determines that their firm is owned and controlled by such citizens. That is going to create a huge disruption of having to terminate all the contracts that now exist, because they are controlled by a foreign company.”