Edward Livingston: “I had not really intended to get into a prolonged debate, but I see the cast of thousands over there on the other side…”

“I had not really intended to get into a prolonged debate, but I see the cast of thousands over there on the other side ready to pounce on me so I thought I might make some preemptive remarks and responsive remarks to the gentleman that just preceded me. My friend from Wisconsin has criticized the schedule. Let me take a second to note that in all but 5 of the last 15 years, we are actually ahead of schedule. We actually have done better in some 10 years out of the last 15 years in terms of getting our work done and closing out the legislative year. Just taking, for example, the year 1990 and comparing it with this year on the matter on which the gentleman criticized the number of working days. The fact is in 1990, there were only 134 legislative days for the entire legislative session which is actually less than what we have done this year. And in that same year, I am counting, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve appropriations bills, all passed on November 5 of 1990. That is three or four weeks after we will be through here in this session of the 105th Congress. The point is, one can criticize the number of days we have been in session or not. The fact is, we are doing much better than we have done in other years, doing better than we have done in all but 5 of the last 15 years.”