Pete Domenici: “first let me say to the distinguished majority leader, we will be working together with the Agriculture Committee and…”

“first let me say to the distinguished majority leader, we will be working together with the Agriculture Committee and Finance Committee leadership, and we will try to live up to the Senator's desire that we finish this bill by noon tomorrow. I want to say, frankly, I do not see why we cannot. When the majority leader gets the floor, I assume one of the early items of business will be to strike the Medicaid provision. That might be debated, but there is an hour limit even on that, and then the bill will be a welfare bill. I think everybody should know that we have not seen very many amendments. Neither has the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee. But this is a reconciliation bill, so it is not so easy to put an amendment together that meets the test of an amendment to a reconciliation bill. For those who have them, the sooner we can see them, the sooner we can analyze them from the standpoint of points of order, or we may be helpful in some respects. So that is how I see the ensuing time. I thank the majority leader very much. Having said that, I want to publicly first thank the two distinguished chairmen, the chairman of the Finance Committee, Chairman Roth, and the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Chairman Lugar, and the ranking members. These two chairmen and their committees have crafted the legislation that meets the spending requirements given in the 1997 resolution adopted earlier this spring.”