A group of Democratic senators lead by Minority Leader Harry Reid put forth an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill that would have denied security clearances to any federal official who has revealed the identity of an undercover CIA operative. The amendment read “No federal employee who discloses or has disclosed classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information shall be entitled to hold a security clearance for access to such information.” Republicans opposed the amendment, and countered with one of their own that attacked the number 2 Democrat Senator Dick Durbin for his attack on the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo where he compared it to a concentration camp and a Soviet Gulag. The amendment said “any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent’s comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk, shall not be permitted access to such information or to hold a security clearance for access to such information.” The Democrats’ amendment went down on a 53-44 party-line vote, while the Republicans’ amendment lost 64-33, with about 20 Republicans joining the Democrats in voting against it. Republican Sen. Susan Collins said “We should not be doing this. She said “This is exactly why the American public holds Congress in such low esteem right now.’’