Trent Lott: “I have been on the job as majority leader for a little more than 24 hours, and there are a lot of issues that we are…”

“I have been on the job as majority leader for a little more than 24 hours, and there are a lot of issues that we are working together on. We are making some progress on those. We will continue to work on the health care reform, and we have not been able to get the budget resolution passed so we can move on to the appropriations calendar. This is an issue that I had done some work on as the whip, just trying to get an agreement on some other issues, including the missile defense issue. I had never really discussed it, in terms of its relationship to the DOD authorization bill. I know that there are a couple of Senators who have some concerns about it. I have not had a chance to sit down and be briefed with them. I have a meeting of our committee chairmen scheduled for early next week, Tuesday. I would like to ask the chairman of the committee exactly what his situation is on this legislation. It is obviously very important. The chemical weapons convention is something that we are all concerned about. I think it should be given proper consideration.”