Bob Wise: “let me respond very quickly to the statements of the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], the distinguished…”

“let me respond very quickly to the statements of the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], the distinguished chairman. First of all, in terms of the constitutionality, the letter that I have from Secretary Slater contests that. And, of course, the proper place for that is to be discussed over months. But the reality is that the Amtrak board, which if it were to continue under the Senate language, has been in existence for a long time for many, many years. All of a sudden we are now hearing concerns about the unconstitutionality of it. At any rate, that is something that can be resolved at a more leisurely pace over the next months, but should not be something that can be taken up on the floor today or tomorrow. And it also should be noted that, in the Senate legislation, there is a reform board that has some teeth in it as well, an oversight panel that is appointed that goes, I believe, partly to addressing the concerns of the chairman. The second is that I am interested because it was the chairman that I believe was just a couple weeks ago repeating my words in debate 2 years ago, and he was talking about the need to pass this legislation immediately.”