Trent Lott: “Regarding amendments, I reiterate what Senator McCain, the manager of the legislation, said. Amendments that are…”

“Regarding amendments, I reiterate what Senator McCain, the manager of the legislation, said. Amendments that are relevant to this bill, germane to this bill, we ought to do that. That is why I left a window in the parliamentary procedure yesterday so we could do that. Unfortunately, the Senator from Massachusetts showed up and stuck in a totally irrelevant amendment, and I felt that that was an abuse of my good-faith effort. But we can still do that. If Senator Dodd, Senator Robb, or some other Senator has an amendment with regard to Y2K, OK, that is the way you legislate. But the idea that we are going to have a political legislative agenda dumped off on this bill, which is a very thinly veiled effort to kill the bill--that is really what is at stake here--any majority leader would be certainly unwilling to agree to that. I offer this to Senators again: If we have relevant amendments, we will be glad to do that. Let me talk for a moment about what this bill does. It provides time for plaintiffs and defendants to resolve the Y2K computer problems without litigation-- without litigation. That sounds like a good idea to me.”