James M. Jeffords: “The Senator knows as well as I know that in the final hours of any legislative session things happen in the exigencies…”

“The Senator knows as well as I know that in the final hours of any legislative session things happen in the exigencies of trying to get something together where people are dealing with the issues and probably are not fully aware of the implications of what they do. And that is what happened here. These matters, through the pressure of the administration wanting to get something they had not been able to get through the normal legislative process, were able to get on the bill, which was that bill that was 40 inches high. Nobody knew what was in it until it got read. And the reason we are here with Senator Murray is there were some problems in the way that bill was thrown together that need to be attended to. And I understand that. It may be helpful in the amendment process that we get into next week with amendments. We might be able to make that bill more meaningful. So that is not off the table, as far as I am concerned, as long as the changes that are made are constructive in making that bill that passed to be more usable by the communities. But right now, obviously, we are here with an amendment, because when it gets thrown together like that at the end of a session, they end up doing something that they do not know what they are doing.”