Bob Dole: “First of all, we started on this bill on Thursday, January 12, at 10:30 a.m.. We have had 10 full days of debate on this…”

“First of all, we started on this bill on Thursday, January 12, at 10:30 a.m.. We have had 10 full days of debate on this one. I do not want anybody suggesting this bill has been rushed. It should have been passed probably in a couple of days. We have had 21 rollcall votes taken on this bill. Of those, 5 were unanimous. Of those 21 votes, 9 were taken on committee amendments that had been adopted unanimously in committee. We have had just about 41 hours and 48 minutes on the bill. Colleagues on the other side have used 26 hours and 41 minutes. On this side, we have used 15 hours and 7 minutes. We reached an agreement last Thursday to limit the number of first-degree amendments to 62 amendments. But then 50 amendments have been offered. I am not certain we gained anything. We probably could have disposed of 12 on Friday. So we really did not gain anything with the consent agreement. So, of the 50 amendments which are pending, 37 amendments were offered by our colleagues on the other side and 13 were offered by my colleagues on this side of the aisle. We have accepted three by a voice vote, which means that after 10 days of debate and entering into these unanimous consent agreements, we still have 47 amendments left.”