Bob Dole: “the managers have been accepting some of these amendments. I would like to get some idea of how many are left. We…”

“the managers have been accepting some of these amendments. I would like to get some idea of how many are left. We started off this morning with 99, and I do not know whether we are down to 90, 85, 25, or 10. There will be a cloture vote. If we cannot get consent to vote tomorrow, it will be early on Wednesday morning. One way or the other, we are going to dispose of this bill. If people are not willing to offer their amendments, we cannot work them out--it is only 6:30 and we thought we would be here late tonight. Obviously, no one wants to stay. The President says he wants the bill passed. But this is all he says, ``I want the bill passed.'' We need some action. Tomorrow we will have a full day. We are not going to dispose of the 99 amendments tomorrow or 85 or 75 amendments. We would be prepared to exchange lists. We have been able to eliminate many of ours. If the Democrats are willing to give what they have, we will know if we have a chance of completing this tomorrow. If not, I would like to move to the telecommunications bill. We have accepted four or five minor amendments. That is about all we have gotten today. I am glad we accepted those rather than have 95-0 votes. Some of our colleagues returned today thinking there would be multiple votes. I obviously cannot manufacture votes, unless we just have Sergeant-at-Arms votes. I am not trying to punish anybody. We need to finish this bill, the President says so. Everybody says so.”