Tom Harkin: “I thank my friend and colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin. He has been the leader on this issue for several years.…”

“I thank my friend and colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin. He has been the leader on this issue for several years. We have been working on this bill for a number of years. It is Senator Durbin who has led the charge on this going back literally several years. We have come so close. We have made all the compromises. We have consumer groups, the Chamber of Commerce, U.S. PIRG. We never get those people to agree on anything, and they all agree on this bill. I thank Senator Durbin for all his great leadership. Hope springs eternal, and I still hope we will get the votes to pass this and keep the politics out of it. I wish to correct something I said earlier. Earlier today I had met with Senator Coburn, and we had a number of things he wanted that I said I would try to put in the amendment on which we will be voting. In good faith, I said I would do that. But then, of course, we had to send it out to various offices to get Senators to sign off on it. We couldn't get Republican Senators to sign off on it. So I wish to correct the record.”