Jeff Bingaman: “let me speak, again regretfully, against the Senator's amendment, and I do so first on behalf of Senator Inouye as…”

“let me speak, again regretfully, against the Senator's amendment, and I do so first on behalf of Senator Inouye as chairman of the Commerce Committee. This is, of course, within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee. The provisions of the amendment relate to the Department of Commerce and NOAA, and the statement I have been given by Senator Inouye is pretty straightforward and says the amendment, while possibly based on good intentions, actually causes substantial harm to numerous NOAA programs and activities and missions. Some of the specifics cited are that the provision requiring that audits be posted on the Web within 60 days does not contain safeguards for proprietary information that may have been gathered as a result of the audit. Also, a concern has been raised about the prohibition in section B on the use of NOAA funds for meetings. The provision in the amendment says: No funds made available by the administrator through a grant or contract can be used by the person who received the grant or the contract to attend any conference other than a conference related to training or routine meetings of officers or employees of the administration. One of the basic activities scientists and engineers engage in is doing their research and then presenting that research at conferences so they can have reaction from their colleagues and their peers and have an interchange about the validity of the work they have done.”