Well, Mr. Chairman, I just want to indicate my support for the amendment. But the process we're following.... We're going to ask the two witnesses who are before us, who have been asked to come today—and I can only repeat, I don't recall agreeing to that. I agreed that they should come, because they are players in this drama, but I didn't agree that they should come in the order that they're coming.
Mr. Reid is quite correct in outlining the process, to explain it so we can properly ask questions of these witnesses, properly prepare for these witnesses. I knew these names, because they were mentioned to me in the subcommittee report. Other members of this committee on both sides may never have heard of these names. The first time they were mentioned was in that subcommittee report.
Am I calling it the correct name, the subcommittee? That's right, there was a discussion where representatives from all four caucuses were present.
That was the first time these names were mentioned. We don't come to these meetings and wing it, Mr. Chairman. We come prepared. We want to know who the witnesses are so that we can research, so that we can ask intelligent questions of these witnesses; otherwise we'll have to have them come back.
The whole purpose of the process is that we have some idea of who these witnesses are, what they have to say. The researchers generally prepare excellent presentations for us for questions that we may put to these two witnesses. They have not had that opportunity. The first time they have had the opportunity to see these names is today. They read the papers like everyone else, I suppose, but they had no idea that these witnesses were coming. At least, I didn't tell them. Unless you or the clerk told them...and I don't imagine you did that, because you're not allowed to.
The first time we had these names available, the names of the two people who are before us, was this morning. So we're going to sit here and just wing it. Some of us don't know the procedure. Some of us do, because we've been through some of these things before, but not all members of the committee, with due respect, are aware of the procedure of how you go through these things.
I'm disappointed that my colleague didn't put the report on, but I'm confident that the report will come, and I accept your statement, Mr. Chairman, that you believed the report was going to be presented today and that it didn't come today.
So I think that the order Mr. Reid has put forward—