Arlen Specter: “We have to get it right. These are complicated matters. We have been studying them for a very long time. We have been…”

“We have to get it right. These are complicated matters. We have been studying them for a very long time. We have been studying them, to my personal knowledge, going back to 1987 in legislation I introduced, and again in 1996, and with the very extensive consideration of the legislation on homeland security in 2002. So I think we are ready to move ahead and make the kinds of judgments that are tough decisions, but that is the pay grade around here. I think the time has come to act. It may not be a perfect bill. I have been in the Senate for 24 years now and I have not seen a perfect bill. The risks of inaction, in my view, are much greater than the risks of action. We know enough to make a sound judgment as to how to put the entire intelligence community under one umbrella.”