Lincoln Chafee: “for the last day and a half, the Senate has been debating the antiterrorism bill conference report. During debate, a…”

“for the last day and a half, the Senate has been debating the antiterrorism bill conference report. During debate, a number of motions to recommit the legislation to conference were offered. I voted against all of them--even those with which I agree on the substance. In this situation sending the bill back to conference would not be simply a matter of adding back provisions that we in the Senate like. Sending the bill back to conference would reopen the legislation to countless changes that the House might, in turn, demand that the Senate accept. Obviously this conference report is not perfect. No bill is. Frankly, there are some provisions I wish were still in there, and others I would gladly see dropped. For example, I would have liked to see in the final bill the Boxer amendment on the statute of limitations for firearms violations. But I recognize that the nature of a conference is compromise. And therefore the package before us is the only one on which we can act. In conclusion, I might add, I do not believe that the door is finally shut on amendments such as the Boxer amendment. We can hopefully revisit that amendment on another bill.”