Sheldon Whitehouse: “Let me say one thing quickly, and we will come back to it, I believe, when amendments come forward. With respect to the…”

“Let me say one thing quickly, and we will come back to it, I believe, when amendments come forward. With respect to the question of how we deal with the litigation that presently involves certain telephone communications carriers, I think everybody in this Chamber should remember the impossible predicament in which those companies have been placed. There are litigants, private litigants in court, in an ongoing action, and the Government has come in and told them: You may not defend yourself. It has told them: You may not say one word in defense of this litigation. National security is asserted as the reason, and all of the threats that come with violations of national security are in play. So there they are, private litigants in private litigation, and the Government has stepped in and said: You may not defend yourself. I think we have to do something about that. Along with what the ranking member of the Judiciary said earlier, the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, I think the only decent thing we can expect the Government to do is to at least step in itself for these litigants. If they are going to tell the carriers they can't defend themselves in court in ongoing litigation, the least this Government should be able to do is to step in and say: We will step in and substitute ourselves for you. So I applaud what Senator Specter has done with his substitution bill, and I look forward to a discussion of that.”