Sunday, February 26, 2006 E-mail this | Print page
Frist says he's OK with ports deal
Senate chief backs additional briefings
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley
ebeardsley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060226/NEWS0104/602260441/1008/NEWS01LEXINGTON, Ky. -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday he's gained a "pretty good" comfort level with the deal under which a United Arab Emirates company would take over operations at six U.S. ports.
However, Frist said he wants to "take a pause" for 30 to 45 days so other members of Congress can be briefed.
Speaking to reporters before headlining a GOP fundraiser in Lexington, Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said his initial trepidation about the deal has waned in recent days as his staff received intelligence briefings. Frist said Republicans trust the Bush administration and think its determination that the port deal doesn't threaten American security is "in all likelihood absolutely the right one."
"But that same comfort level, the American people do not have," Frist said. "I have 99 other United States senators who need that opportunity to ask those questions, to have that same comfort level, and the House of Representatives, I'm sure, is going to want to do the same."