Trent Lott: “let me point out that was an important vote we had. It was overwhelming. The Senate voted for cloture 87 to 10. So there…”

“let me point out that was an important vote we had. It was overwhelming. The Senate voted for cloture 87 to 10. So there is not going to be any prolonged, dilatory action here. Republicans and Democrats want to get this bill to conclusion. People on both sides of the aisle want to make sure that we don't act on this legislation in such a way that we wind up costing people jobs or costing small business men and women the opportunity to provide jobs. We are making progress. The Finance Committee came out with a unanimous, bipartisan package which is now going to be a part of what we do here. We are going to get through this process in a reasonable period of time. Our leaders, I am sure, are talking about how exactly we can get to conclusion and what we will go to next. But we have only had about 3 days, as was pointed out, on which we were actually dealing with amendments and making progress. There have been 76 amendments filed. There are still 26 pending. We have disposed of 17 amendments. So we are making progress. But the vote that just took place did block some Members who had legitimate amendments which are relevant, although they are not germane postcloture, and there are a few amendments that are germane postcloture.”