Trent Lott: “sometime when the Senate is doing its best work, it is not always visible. Throughout the day, we have been having…”

“sometime when the Senate is doing its best work, it is not always visible. Throughout the day, we have been having discussions that involved the managers of this legislation. They have been talking to members of the Finance Committee and communicating with the administration. It is very important that we have the straight legislation. There are a lot of different views on both sides of the aisle about exactly how this should proceed, or whether it is a good idea. There are those who say, yes, we would like to have trade promotion authority, but there must be trade adjustment assistance to go with it for those who might be displaced from jobs so they can get assistance with training and get into the next job. It is important we move forward. Everybody's options are still preserved. Senator Daschle and I have indicated to each other that there is not going to be any precipitous move. We want to take a look at the actual language. Sometimes it is hard to negotiate a moving target or when there is not a clear understanding of what is involved. We now have a document. We are going to take a look at it tonight. I hope we can begin to move forward, perhaps even with amendments tomorrow. We will go over the language, and we will be talking further with the managers of the legislation and make sure the administration has a chance to review it. I look forward to a full debate and amendment process.”