Let me interrupt you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make sure we understand each other.
I'm talking about the timeframe that we were allotted for the first portion of the witnesses and that we had exceeded at the end of Mr. Shields's time. Mr. Shields had started his round of questioning, and we were already within the time. We had completed the time allotted for the first witness by the time the second hour of the hearing was starting.
If you give time to one party, it's important to do so equally and according to the normal distribution. I know that you pay particular attention to the distribution and fairness of speaking time. But as we are going to be dealing with some very important issues in the coming weeks, I want to make sure that we all have the opportunity to take advantage of the time we are allotted to speak.