Mike Thompson: “I certainly will, and I express appreciation to the leadership for allowing us to do this unfettered and unhassled…”

“I certainly will, and I express appreciation to the leadership for allowing us to do this unfettered and unhassled because I know the Senator wants to finish and move on to other things. We have accomplished a couple of different things in the first day. We have had an opportunity to say our piece on our side to express our concern with some of the provisions. We have also had an opportunity to have a vote. It does not take a genius to count that vote. After the vote occurred, the proponents of this legislation, in a very reasonable fashion, suggested we get together and see if some of the concerns we expressed could not be addressed. That is what good debate and good interchange is all about: actually listening to each other and learning something from each other and trying to see whether or not we could address some issues. Those thoughts have been expressed in a way that had not been heard before. All of this happened, and that is a good thing. We are going to wind up with a better product than we otherwise would have. So, yes, I concur with the Senator. It is time to do what we can do and then move on. I add we still need to be diligent and make sure we agree on the language, as we have orally, and hopefully wrap this thing up tomorrow.”