Byron Dorgan: “In my judgment, the discussion we have just had is easily resolved. Either the Senator is providing much greater…”

“In my judgment, the discussion we have just had is easily resolved. Either the Senator is providing much greater authority and therefore more flexibility at the expense of less accountability to the Congress or he is not. As I read this, I believe the amendment that has been offered by Senator Byrd, Senator Stevens, Senator Inouye, Senator Warner, myself and others, a bipartisan amendment, does not in any way weaken the bill that came to the Senate floor on which the Senator has spent a lot of time. I think it, in fact, strengthens it. It strengthens the role of Congress and I think makes this a better bill. So I understand the Senator believes that the way the Senator has created this underlying Collins-Lieberman bill does not provide less accountability for Congress. The Senator has described it as much better flexibility, and that flexibility, as I read this, comes at the expense of accountability for the Congress. My only point is, all of us want exactly the same thing. We want this to work. If there is anybody in here who does not want this to work, they do not belong in this Chamber. We want this to work. Why do we want it to work? Because we know people want to murder innocent Americans. They want to commit acts of terror in this country and we need to stop them. Now, how do we stop them? With good intelligence. I cannot say how profoundly disappointed I am at the poor intelligence we have been given as a Congress in recent years. Somebody needs to answer to that.”