On the recordMay 5, 2010
I have received about 95 amendments to the bill that people will propose. I believe Members ought to be able to be heard on their amendments. This is something that will have to be self-imposed discipline, to some degree, but if Members will restrain themselves on time, more colleagues will get a chance to be a part of the bill and to be heard. If you ask for too much time, it will make it difficult. I just ask people to be considerate of each other. Most times, an amendment can be made--a big amendment--with an hour or two of debate and others less than that, maybe 20 minutes or 30 minutes equally divided. Again, I am not suggesting some amendments are more important than others. If you bring the amendments to us for review, perhaps we can adopt some or make them part of a managers' amendment. We will both have to check them out. If we can do that, we can reduce the number significantly. I think we have some smart proposals. I cannot do that alone. My colleague will have to agree with that.
