Max Baucus: “I very much commend and thank my colleagues, the majority leader and assistant minority leader, in trying to work…”

“I very much commend and thank my colleagues, the majority leader and assistant minority leader, in trying to work through this bill as we are approaching the endgame. We are about there. We are very close to being there. I might recall, a few weeks ago many observers had written off this bill and said the bill was deadlocked--for example, over the overtime provision. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, his comment to the New York Journal years ago: The report of this bill's death was an exaggeration. Instead, we are now back to doing what the Senate does best; that is, working through amendments, doing our work, doing our business, doing what we should do. We have considered 28 amendments. We have already adopted 17 amendments to this bill. I will not read them all, but they are very important amendments. We have been on the bill 13 separate days over the course of 4 separate weeks. It has been the desire of this Senator to have the Senate consider as many relevant amendments as possible. Since we have already adopted 17, I think we are virtually there.”