Max Baucus: “I will ask another question. If we vote for the motion to proceed, with the assurance and understanding that there would…”

“I will ask another question. If we vote for the motion to proceed, with the assurance and understanding that there would be the full opportunity for amendments, but also, I think, in the spirit of comity and good faith--sometimes amendments are blocked because they are not good-faith amendments, such as on abortion and other issues that have nothing to do with the bill. They are political amendments. The Senate has, unfortunately, come to the point where because they offer political amendments, with nothing to do with the issue at hand, the majority leader is sometimes forced into that situation in order to set up a procedure to minimize the possibility of the occurrence of those political amendments. So it is a two-way street. It is my objective--and I would counsel the majority leader to allow amendments. That is the way the Senate should operate. There has to be a good-faith understanding on the Senator's side of the aisle on good-faith amendments.”