Mark Dayton: “I echo some of the remarks the Democratic leader made. I am about to leave this Chamber to go to a behind-closed- doors…”

“I echo some of the remarks the Democratic leader made. I am about to leave this Chamber to go to a behind-closed- doors hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs with the acting director of operations for FEMA and the Commandant of the Coast Guard. I am told that the chairman of the committee, the distinguished Senator from Maine, and the ranking member from Connecticut tried to get this hearing in public but that the administration officials would not appear in a public session. I think the public deserves to and would benefit from hearing these people with key roles in this recovery effort. Similarly, on Tuesday evening, a majority of us in the Senate met with 10 members of the Cabinet, 10 Secretaries--all of them had important things to say--as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the head of the Coast Guard. That briefing should have been in a public setting. There was not a single remark made by anyone that was not unclassified and should not have been available to all of the people of this country, certainly those who are most beleaguered, who are looking for answers to the questions that the Democratic leader and others on both sides of the aisle have raised. We had a brief time for questions. We were not able to ask those questions of the administration officials in a public setting before the American people.…”