Trent Lott: “Let me say with regard to the package that was agreed to, the changes, we did work together on that. It was cleared on…”

“Let me say with regard to the package that was agreed to, the changes, we did work together on that. It was cleared on both sides. I want to thank the leaders for allowing us to move forward on this legislation. It is never easy to go straight to a bill these days. There are Senators who have reservations about going to this particular bill at this time. Some Senators wanted to make sure they were going to have an opportunity to look at the legislation and prepare thoughtful amendments, amendments that might, frankly, improve the legislation, add additional reforms, delete parts of it. That is all well and good. I understand that maybe some Senators were not aware we were going to try to go to Amtrak today, even though I know an effort was made to try to inform both sides that would be the intent after we dealt with the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, the Southwick nomination, and the DREAM Act. Maybe it moved a little quicker than people thought because of some of the earlier actions today. I want to emphasize this too. While I have been involved in working on this legislation for some 3 years with Senator Lautenberg as chairman of this subcommittee and now as ranking member, and I think there are some good things in here worth having, maybe we can even strengthen it more. That would be positive for the future of Amtrak. I am perfectly willing and anxious to see if there are good ideas of how we can make it even a stronger bill. I want Amtrak to succeed.”