Trent Lott: “as most Members know, the Senate has been waiting for the Judiciary Committee to complete action on the very important…”

“as most Members know, the Senate has been waiting for the Judiciary Committee to complete action on the very important bankruptcy bill for some time now. There is a long history behind it. As you recall, we passed the bankruptcy bill last year by a very wide margin, 70-28. The bill was eventually vetoed, even though, when I talked to the President personally about it, I had the impression that he had some hesitancy in vetoing it, but he did. And in view of the lateness of the hour, it was not overridden--an effort was not made to override it. So at the beginning of this session, it seemed to me this was a bill that had been worked through the meat grinder very aggressively and that we should move it very quickly. So my thought was we should file it and, under rule XIV, bring it directly to the floor of the Senate. I did not make any effort to do that in a surprising way. There seemed to be pretty broad agreement that that would be a reasonable way to approach it. However, there was some feeling by the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee that the committee should have a chance to have a look at the legislation. I discussed it with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Hatch. While he would have preferred that it go straight to the floor, he thought that was a reasonable request and that that would make the Members feel it was being done in a fairer way. So be it; that would be fine.”