Robert Smith: “I am going to divert from it and frankly just speak from my heart, from my experience. My experience is not long in this…”

“I am going to divert from it and frankly just speak from my heart, from my experience. My experience is not long in this Chamber. But my experience among the people of Oregon is very recent. And my experience there with people causes me to rise in opposition to the amendment of the Senator from California. I am reluctant to do that for a personal reason. I am one of Senator Feinstein's great admirers. She may not know that, but I think she is a terrific human being. But I have an obligation to speak as best I can for the people who elected me. I believe this may be an imperfect process. Maybe it should not be a rider to a bill. But I am very aware that for 25 years this issue has been debated in this Chamber, and we have had study after study after study, and what we are beginning to develop is a feeling among the electorate that when going for justice in the ninth circuit, that justice will be denied. So I think there is a lot of frustration on the part of many of us here that we have to do whatever we can and stop studying and stop delaying and start doing.”