Trent Lott: “I might say, Mr. President, I had hoped we would be able to make more progress today. I know the distinguished chairman…”

“I might say, Mr. President, I had hoped we would be able to make more progress today. I know the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee was here at the appointed hour and made an opening statement on this appropriations bill. I do know that there have been a couple of amendments that have been laid down. We are going to have to make real progress on this legislation tomorrow because we are facing a deadline on the continuing resolution this coming Friday. So if we are going to avoid that problem, we are going to have to either complete the amendments and complete final passage on this omnibus appropriations bill or take some other action to avoid the threat by President Clinton last week that we would have a shutdown. So I urge my colleagues and the leadership to work together to get an agreement on a list of amendments, how those amendments will be brought forward; that we have some sort of reasonable limit on the number of amendments that are offered so we can complete this legislation hopefully by tomorrow night or certainly sometime early in the day on Wednesday so we can allow this bill to go to conference.”