Tina Smith: “this debate, on the part of those who are defending the project, I must say, has been very skillfully conducted.…”

“this debate, on the part of those who are defending the project, I must say, has been very skillfully conducted. Frankly, someone who was paying maybe just a little attention to this and not to all of the detail would probably agree with them. It is unfortunate the debates and facts get twisted on the floor of the Senate as they do. This basically now is coming down to being an anti-NASA vote, which it is not. I have made a very strong point earlier in my comments about my strong support for NASA. It does not take one dime from NASA. It allows NASA to reprogram the money into areas that I believe and I think NASA would probably agree are more important. It is also coming down as being total opposition to any and all research that has ever been done on animals in the name of helping human beings. That is not the issue either. The issue is very simply this: Do you continue to do research after you have gotten the facts? Do you continue to do research over and over and over again for no reason? No one has presented any good reason for this project.”