William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “I think the first and probably most important point to make on this amendment is that it does not belong on this bill…”

“I think the first and probably most important point to make on this amendment is that it does not belong on this bill and it imperils the whole bill. This issue about whether to expand GAO's authority to be able to investigate the intelligence community, which has been an issue in the fiscal year 2010 intelligence authorization bill, has been the subject of veto threats from the administration and is one of, if not the reason, here 4 months before the end of the fiscal year we still do not have an intelligence authorization bill. So it does not belong here. This is the DOD authorization bill. It is being discussed in another forum where it should, the intelligence authorization bill, and if it gets added to the DOD authorization bill, it puts in danger this entire bill because just today, the administration sent another email which confirmed the veto threat over this provision. So however Members feel about the particular issue one way or another, I would suggest that you ought to be very careful about endangering the whole bill over this provision.”