On the recordMay 11, 2000
I thank Senator Moynihan, Senator Dodd, and Senator Grassley, for their comments. They are absolutely right. This is the way we can do things when we make up our minds that we are going to. Keep in mind that just a year ago, most people thought this had no chance. The House passed a bill that was only applicable to Africa. But then Senator Roth and Senator Moynihan said we should go forward on this. They made the point that we had not had a major trade bill in--I thought 5 years, but in fact it was 6 years. I yielded to the distinguished Senator from New York because he pays such close attention to this. The chairman and ranking member said we should go forward with this and we should add the CBI region and Central America to the package. We did that. We worked together across the aisle between the two parties. The administration did express its interest in this legislation. The President personally called at least twice--maybe three times--and talked about his hope that we could get this done.
Said by
Trent Lott
Source
govinfo.gov