Trent Lott: “This is truly bipartisan legislation: Senator McCain, Senator Hollings, Senator Rockefeller and I all have worked on it.…”

“This is truly bipartisan legislation: Senator McCain, Senator Hollings, Senator Rockefeller and I all have worked on it. Where we have had problems we have been able to work out most of them. I think we have a really good product. I want to say at the beginning we are hoping to move this legislation through rapidly. Hopefully we could even complete it today. We have a few issues that have not been resolved yet. Two or three of them may require votes. We ask our colleagues to come to the floor, let's have a debate and, if we have to, we will have a vote. There are not that many amendments that I think would actually require a vote. I also want to emphasize the importance of this legislation. Because we have moved it fast, and because we have been able to get an agreement worked out to bring it to the floor, and because we may be able to handle it in a brief period of time, it should not diminish at all the importance of passing this legislation.”