Mike Conaway: “I want to just add a word of caution to the amendment. We intend to support it. The Department of Defense has in fact…”

“I want to just add a word of caution to the amendment. We intend to support it. The Department of Defense has in fact instituted a suspension of the policy that led to these problems, and have put in place a policy that looks very similar to this codification of the rules. The Department of Defense will live under those rules over the next several months, but I worry that the policy is too strict and will limit Department of Defense's access to the right people for the right information at the right time. None of us want that. We all want transparency, we all want evidence of conflict of interest to be out there so that we all know that. I am in agreement with the spirit of what the gentleman is trying to do; I just offer a word of caution that if the practice under the Department of Defense's current policy, which is very similar to this, shows problems and issues that we don't anticipate with this, that we would in conference come back and address those properly.”