Max Baucus: “I am pleased, frankly, that in the final days of the 108th Congress, the Senate is set to pass at long last the…”

“I am pleased, frankly, that in the final days of the 108th Congress, the Senate is set to pass at long last the miscellaneous tariff bill. This bill reduces or eliminates tariffs on literally hundreds of products that U.S. companies use to make products in America. It is a collection of many bills too small to be considered independently, and, traditionally, Congress collects these inexpensive and noncontroversial bills together into one big omnibus bill which the Senate then passes by unanimous consent. Unfortunately, that did not happen with this bill this time. For the first time in the history of the process, the House insisted we go to conference on the bill. Frankly, that is unfortunate. In the aggregate, the provisions of this bill represent a significant cost savings for U.S. manufacturers simply struggling to compete. We owe it to them to get the process back on track in the next Congress. I hope we can do that, and I promise to work very hard toward that end.”