Bob Dole: “the point I want to make was made before last night. After 25 minutes of debate the House passed this measure by a vote…”

“the point I want to make was made before last night. After 25 minutes of debate the House passed this measure by a vote of 429 to zero. If we want to take 2 days, or 3 days I guess we can. But I want to pass the coverage proposal as advanced by the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from Connecticut. It is bipartisan. It seems to me that the sooner we can do that the sooner we can move on to other legislation. I indicated to my Republican colleagues earlier today that we intend to not only take this matter up but lobby reform, and other matters that we believe should be addressed which were addressed last year. I certainly commend the Senator from Michigan, Senator Levin, for his leadership. But we believe there are some changes that can be made even in the gift ban. This amendment would not be effective in any event until the end of May 1995. It would be my hope that by that time we will have even a better package. I hope that we can table this amendment and move to any other amendments which my colleagues may offer. But we are going to finish this bill either tonight or tomorrow or on Monday unless there is an agreement, a reasonable agreement. I should not say that we will finish it. I know that I have been in the Senate longer than that. We will try to finish the bill by tomorrow or Monday. I know Senators can prevent that from happening.”