Trent Lott: “We did not indicate a time amount for Senator Enzi. We were not able to confirm exactly how much time he would need. I…”

“We did not indicate a time amount for Senator Enzi. We were not able to confirm exactly how much time he would need. I think part of it would depend on how the rest of the time goes. Mr. President, on behalf of hard-working American people, I am pleased to rise today in support of picking up this very important Tax Increase Prevention Act. I have been looking forward to this for almost a year now, and finally we have reached the magic moment. I believe we are waiting for Senator Hutchison to arrive. While she is on her way, let me just put in the Record at this point the timeline of what has transpired. First of all, the tax reconciliation legislation passed the Senate Finance Committee on November 15, 2005. The Senate then passed the tax reconciliation bill 64 to 33, a very strong bipartisan vote. On December 8, 2005, the House passed the bill 234 to 197. Along the way, there were many hurdles thrown up, delays, and obstruction. In fact, instead of going to conference, because of the fact that the Senate had acted first, we actually had to bring it back to the floor of the Senate and go through the process again. On February 2 of this year, 2006, the Senate repassed the tax reconciliation bill by a vote of 66 to 31, again bipartisan, actually an increased number. Then on February 14, the Senate completed action on the debate, 10 hours of motions to instruct conferees with a mini vote-arama. But we completed our work, and conferees were appointed on February 18.…”