Trent Lott: “When we get to final passage, the vote on FDA is going to be 95 to maybe 5, maybe more. Ninety-five Senators want to…”

“When we get to final passage, the vote on FDA is going to be 95 to maybe 5, maybe more. Ninety-five Senators want to vote on the substance of FDA reform. The American people want that. The American people want to get a better system for approving drugs and medical devices and a more active and a more efficient FDA. We ought to give it to them. I believe the House is going to act on this. So it was a process to allow the Senators to continue on this bill, to get this bill completed, get FDA up in a reasonable way, and not have more votes tonight. Senator Kennedy has indicated he can't agree to that. The alternative then is this: We will have to pull down Labor-HHS tonight. We will then go to two votes on Federal judges tonight. We will vote in the morning at 9:45 on cloture. If we get cloture, then, of course, the Senator from Massachusetts and others perhaps can talk all day tomorrow if they want to. They can talk for 30 hours if they want to after cloture on the motion to proceed--on the motion to proceed now, I want you to know--to the FDA bill that over 90 Senators support.”