mr. gerson? >> i'm not sure that life can't continue very well without this act all together because one starts with the constitution but speaking to the act and you're here to amend it, remember it's purpose was to clear the deck of a bunch of emergencies that were a decade old and were littering the field and remember that your fundamental power is the power of the purse and so what you ought to be doing, it seems to me, by amending this statute clearly, and everybody agrees about this, you need a plain english definition of what constitutes an emergency. what you're saying is we're giving license to the executive to carry on on this basis without our intervening to cut off that activity by taking action with relationship to finance, what your article one powers are. you're thinking about process when you do this. and as i say, i start with the constitution. and first and foremost i think a clear definition, some practical time frame should be attached to that and the rest should be up to consi