James M. Jeffords: “I know that we have had a difficult day today. We are having a difficult time trying to face the facts of life that the…”

“I know that we have had a difficult day today. We are having a difficult time trying to face the facts of life that the bill we are amending is a very important one, one which I have been an original cosponsor and one which part of the bill is mine. It is something that I worked very hard on. I believe it is an excellent job. However, I also believe that it has a very serious flaw in it. Thus, at the time the committee was meeting--and I want to point out that we have already made an exception today--the Finance Committee came and said, ``Hey, we have a bunch of amendments.'' Most of them have been accepted. So we have already made several exceptions to the nonamendment rule. I want to remind people of that. Now, I submitted this amendment, which I have before this body, at the committee. I am a member of the committee, ranking Republican on the committee. At that time it was said, ``Hey, we want to get out of here a unanimous bill. We may have problems.'' So I said, ``OK, I will wait until the floor.'' So I come to the floor to offer an amendment, which I think about everybody agrees ought to be on it, and they said, ``No. No amendments--except for the Finance Committee amendments.'' I understand that the ranking Republican and the chairman of the committee are bound by their commitment to no amendments, but nobody else is. Nobody else is in this body. So I hope Members would say he deserves to be heard.…”