Chris Dodd: “I will not go through and name each one of them. Some of them are rather arcane but nevertheless important provisions of…”

“I will not go through and name each one of them. Some of them are rather arcane but nevertheless important provisions of this bill, the point being that we were prepared basically in the fall of 2003 to go forward. We were notified at that point that the first item of business in January of 2004, more than a year ago, would be the class action reform bill. Well, here we are in February of 2005 finally getting to this matter. There was a prepared bipartisan bill over a year ago on class action and we are now dealing with exactly the same bill. As the Senator from Kentucky pointed out, he would have preferred the House bill, the bill that was not approved when the cloture motion was held, and reluctantly is supporting this bill. There are those of us who could not have supported the House bill or the version that came up in the Senate earlier, but we have worked very hard to put this compromise together over a year ago. So we could have dealt with this a long time ago, but nonetheless we are here today and that is the good news. I am heartened that the other body has agreed to accept this version if it goes unamended over the next day or so during the debate and consideration of this legislation. I am hopeful that will be the case.”