Dale Bumpers: “I think everybody here is extremely sympathetic to the majority leader's problem in trying to get these bills passed and…”

“I think everybody here is extremely sympathetic to the majority leader's problem in trying to get these bills passed and to get us out of here for a recess that everybody is looking forward to. Now, the chairman of the committee has just said that these bills are dead on arrival at the White House. But here is the problem I have with that, and in not offering a couple of amendments I feel very strongly about. The President, like every Member of the Senate, reserves the right to change his mind. One of the prime objections he had to this bill was legal services, torpedoing the Legal Services Corporation. We have just taken a giant step toward satisfying one of the objections the President had to this bill. If we legislate in a diligent way here, we might address a couple of others, and he might sign it. If I do not offer my amendments and the President does sign the bill, I am out until 1996, as is every other Senator here. I want to be as cooperative as possible. I have a couple of amendments. I think one will be accepted; I will agree to a short time agreement on the other. But I am reluctant to quit or to withdraw my amendments or not offer them on the proposition that the President is going to veto all of them because, as I say, he may change his mind.”