Jeff Bingaman: “I have great difficulty understanding why the chairman of the committee with jurisdiction would want to have the issue…”

“I have great difficulty understanding why the chairman of the committee with jurisdiction would want to have the issue dealt with without hearings. It seems to me it is a very important issue, a very important issue of public policy for our country, and one that needs to be thoroughly debated and discussed. Clearly, that cannot be done as an amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill pending before the Senate today. So I hope very much that we will not proceed to actually enact something like this without having the wisdom to go back and subject it to scrutiny in the hearing process in the committee, in the committee of jurisdiction, which the Senator from North Carolina now chairs. I think that would be the appropriate course to follow. I have not had a chance to do a detailed analysis of this legislation, but I do think that it would be foolhardy in the extreme for us to proceed and try to adopt it as an amendment at this point.”