The other item is this issue of additional witnesses beyond the two. The weakness in the last session's routine motion is that it really leaves a fairly broad range for I don't know who. I guess it's at the discretion of the chair to decide when exceptional circumstances require more than two witnesses. The new proposed routine motion for this particular area in fact gives more clarity on that point, and it says there should be two. As with anything under committee business, the committee has the ability, if those exceptional circumstances exist, to deal with that, and if they come up we can make a decision to allow more than two. But in fact we've given more clear direction on that particular point, and it doesn't leave the chair of the committee with the unilateral decision to decide when they can add a third, fourth, or more witnesses without the consent of the committee. I'm not taking anything away from the chair's ability to make these good judgments on behalf of the committee, but nevertheless I think it clears the issue up.
On November 15th, 2007. See this statement in context.