Trent Lott: “I want to say this afternoon I am extremely proud of the U.S. Senate and of the Congress, because I believe before this…”

“I want to say this afternoon I am extremely proud of the U.S. Senate and of the Congress, because I believe before this week is out we will have passed this already described momentous legislation into law. It is not an easy thing to do. It is very difficult. I remember, soon after I came to the Senate, we had debate on the line-item veto. I think probably the Senator from Indiana and the Senator from Arizona, Senator McCain, were involved in it then. I made some comments, and I had a couple of Senators come over and explain to me that might not be a good idea, to support that. They caused me to think a lot about it. But here, in effect, we are taking action against our interests. This is a fundamental change; there is no denying it. The Senator from West Virginia is right; the Senator from Alaska. Yet, we are going to do it because, first, I think, we have come up with better legislation than we had 7 years ago, or earlier this year. We have improved it. We have made it more acceptable to more Senators or Congressmen, Republicans and Democrats.”