Rob Andrews: “I thank my friend for yielding. There is more agreement here than meets the eye. I think everyone in this Chamber agrees…”

“I thank my friend for yielding. There is more agreement here than meets the eye. I think everyone in this Chamber agrees that no person who is a dangerous threat to the people of the United States should be released. I think most people in this Chamber agree that, if the Government of Yemen is unprepared to effectuate adequate security means, then no person should be released to Yemen. The question here is who gets to make that decision. In this instance, the people who know the most about this--the leaders of our intelligence community, of our military, of our law enforcement community--have reviewed the specific details of 56 cases, and they have concluded based upon their review of those details that the right thing to do is to release these detainees to Yemen if and when they are satisfied that Yemen's security measures are appropriate. The question here really comes down to whether this judgment should be made by the Members of this body, who have varying degrees of knowledge about this issue--including the gentlelady, who has very diligently learned a lot about this issue and cares a lot about it--or whether the decision should be made by people whom we have entrusted with the defense of our country, who have developed specific, granular, factual expertise about this question. I believe this is a case where the proper decision belongs with those experts, where the proper decision belongs with those who know the most about this matter.…”