Byron Dorgan: “One other issue. I asked the majority leader a question about how the tax issues will come to the floor. It looks to me…”

“One other issue. I asked the majority leader a question about how the tax issues will come to the floor. It looks to me as if a menu of tax issues will come to this floor in the last hours put in a small business authorization bill. I believe the House has actually added other conferees to that conference who are not part of the Small Business Committee. A small business authorization bill will now be the carrier for all kinds of tax provisions in a conference report, and no Member of the Senate who cares about taxes and wants to have a role in that, perhaps offer an amendment, or have some discussion about what ought to be in or out, no Member of the Senate is going to have that opportunity. It is done in a conference by a few people in a bill that is totally unrelated. It will come in a conference report, and the result is none of us will have the opportunity to do much about it. The majority leader is a friend. I talked with him one day and said running this place is similar to that commercial on television where those leather-faced cowboys wearing chaps and buckskin vests, riding those big old horses, are herding cats, trying to run cats through the sagebrush, talking about what a tough job that is. I understand that. Running the House and the Senate probably is not much different.”