Trent Lott: “while I object to the process under which this is being considered--I think we should have had this prescription drug…”

“while I object to the process under which this is being considered--I think we should have had this prescription drug issue go through the Finance Committee. We should have a normal debate, markup, and report out what would normally have been a bipartisan bill and probably a tripartisan bill. That is the way we should do business, and I predict right now that eventually the only way we are ever really going to get a real prescription drug result is we are going to have to go back and do that. Having said that, the bill before us everybody understood was going to be a vehicle to which Senator Daschle and others would be able to add prescription drug amendments or bills. That is what has happened. I think we will have sufficient time for debate later on tonight, on Friday, on Monday, on Tuesday morning, I presume, with the votes to occur one after the other on Tuesday afternoon. I think that is a fair way to proceed.”