Pete Sessions: “I understand some effort is being made to pursue the amendment offered by Senator Specter, which is very troubling to me…”

“I understand some effort is being made to pursue the amendment offered by Senator Specter, which is very troubling to me because if it were to pass, it would reverse the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that we passed last September on final passage, 65 to 34. Passage of this amendment would result in a veto of the Defense authorization bill by the President of the United States. The first amendment we have up that is being pushed to a vote against the pleas of people on this side would result in a veto of the Defense authorization bill. The second amendment may well raise the same issue, I understand. Not only that, we have very controversial amendments that are being made filed to this bill and that have been offered for a vote on this bill which are very controversial and are not related to the defense of America--for example, the hate crimes amendment. People have differing views on that. They have offered an amendment on hate crimes on this bill. There is also the amendment on the DREAM Act, which is an immigration amendment that would provide citizenship to people who come here in our education system at a certain age, and even though they are illegally in the country, they would be provided in-state tuition and student loans subsidized by the Federal Government. That is a very controversial matter too. So that is all going to be put on this piece of legislation, apparently.”