Chuck Grassley: “we are in our second day of debate on the important Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Because of my responsibilities as…”

“we are in our second day of debate on the important Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. Because of my responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I have not had a chance to participate in the debate of a bill that I have been the sponsor of going back to the 105th Congress. It is a pleasure for me to participate and anticipate the passage of this legislation. It is about time that the Senate gets this bill done and gets it to the President. Of course, I am very pleased that Majority Leader Frist sees this as an important enough issue to move so early in the 109th Congress. I also thank Chairman Specter, as new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for getting this class action bill through committee so very quickly. I hope we can move expeditiously with few or no amendments, pass this bill, and have the President sign it, which we are sure he will. My colleagues will recall that in the 108th Congress, Senator Frist brought the class action fairness bill to the floor in October 2003, but we were not able to proceed to the bill. We lost the vote on cloture on the motion to proceed by just a one-vote margin; in other words, 50 votes as opposed to the 60-vote supermajority that cloture takes.”