Haley Stevens: “Mr. President, I want to finish my comments. I think we have almost used our 10 minutes. I thank my good friend for his…”

“Mr. President, I want to finish my comments. I think we have almost used our 10 minutes. I thank my good friend for his comments. I could never claim to be the chairman that Senator Byrd was, but in any event, I do hope the Members are listening to what we are saying. We have had over 100 amendments on the last two appropriations bills. If that continues, we will be on appropriations bills until the day we go off on recess for the conventions. There will be no time for PNTR. Let's get the bills up. I urge the Members to be considerate of what we are doing. If we can finish them, then we take up PNTR. I think we can't keep breaking up the concept of these bills. The synergy of getting a bill working and getting it to pass in the appropriations process is necessary to get these done by the time we go off on August recess. I have every confidence we will get to the PNTR. The Senator from West Virginia is right; despite my support of PNTR, it is not our constitutional duty to finish it by the end of the fiscal year. The appropriations bills are. That is our point. We want to do our job on time. We urge the Senate to work with us to get that done.”