Political Quotes

“I would like to briefly address the intelligence authorization bill for fiscal year 2011, which has now been reported by the Intelligence Committee. I filed additional views to the committee report accompanying the bill, and my remarks today will include a brief summary of those views. I have now been a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee for over a decade--Senator Feinstein, Senator Rockefeller and I all began serving on the committee at the beginning of 2001, which I believe makes us the committee's longest-serving current members. In my time on the committee, I have become quite familiar with the intelligence authorization process. It has now been almost 7 years since an intelligence authorization bill was signed into law during the fiscal year it was intended to cover, and although the 2011 fiscal year is now over halfway over, Congress still has an opportunity to provide useful guidance and direction regarding intelligence spending for this fiscal year. The fiscal year 2011 intelligence authorization bill is the product of substantial labor by both Chairman Feinstein and Vice Chairman Chambliss, as well as their respective staff, and I commend them both for their efforts and for the bipartisan manner in which they have worked to put it together. Unfortunately, I have very serious concerns about one provision of this bill, and that is why I voted against it during the committee markup last month.…”