William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “I commend the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Ryun) for the serious work he has done in this effort. It is certainly rare…”

“I commend the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Ryun) for the serious work he has done in this effort. It is certainly rare that I would have a different opinion from my committee chairman, but I believe that the Cox-Dicks approach is better. I think it is important for us to focus on the important parts of these security problems. There has been no indication whatsoever that the foreign visitor program has been in any way related to any of the security lapses that we have had at the national laboratories. Now other things are related, management of DOE and the number of other areas where more work is required, but not the foreign visitor program. I would further say that the numbers that we hear talked about do not really tell us very much. For example, the Governor of California once called Lawrence Livermore and asked that a busload of Chinese tourists be able to visit Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and go to the publicly open museum. Every person on that bus counts as a foreign visitor. I do not think we wanted to have the Secretary of Energy sign a waiver for each and every one of those tourists on a bus going to a public building. I think the Cox-Dicks approach is better and ask that this amendment be defeated.”