Paul Coverdell: “I rise to express a certain amount of indignation over the charade being played out in the U.S. Senate this afternoon.…”

“I rise to express a certain amount of indignation over the charade being played out in the U.S. Senate this afternoon. Yesterday, I was, as a member of the Small Business Committee of the Senate, in attendance when the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 was unanimously passed to the floor. I listened to the ranking member, the Senator from Arkansas, the Senator from Minnesota, the Senator from Connecticut, and the Senator from Massachusetts all heap praise on the committee chairman, Senator Bond, from Missouri for his bipartisan efforts to produce a bill that could receive unanimous consent and come to the floor and be rapidly attended to. It is stunning, in light of those comments, that the leadership, the minority leadership, the President's leadership, would come to this floor and throw obstacle after obstacle in front of the consideration of this bipartisan piece of legislation. What it says to me is that they are bringing the President's campaign onto the floor of the Senate, and the 1996 campaign for President of the United States is at work here today on the Senate floor. The administration, the President, responding to the hue and cry across the land--which is that we have to be more attentive to small business in America. Small business produces over half the jobs, and all the new jobs--virtually 90 percent of the new jobs--are coming to small business.…”