Byron Dorgan: “I say to the Senator from Nevada, he is absolutely correct. This rush here seems to me to be inappropriate if, in fact…”

“I say to the Senator from Nevada, he is absolutely correct. This rush here seems to me to be inappropriate if, in fact, they bring a bill to the floor tomorrow at 10 a.m. that has not yet been written--it is now 20 minutes to 7 here in Washington, DC--the bill has not yet been completed, and there are 100 and some amendments remaining. They are over in the Hart Building finishing it. It will be brought over to the Senate. I guarantee it will not be printed. They will have one copy at the desk. Someone may have made some copies, some Xerox copies, and hope they don't lose a couple pages this time. A couple weeks ago they lost a couple pages and held things up. But that is not the way to legislate. It seems to me the thoughtful way to do this would be to move this through the Finance Committee, have it printed, bring it to the floor, lay it over at least 1 day--it should be more than that--give people an opportunity to study it, and determine what is in it and how they might wish to amend it. There is an old saying I mentioned before in this Senate Chamber: Never buy something from somebody who is out of breath. There is a kind of breathless quality to this rush: We must rush; We must get this done immediately; We must bring this bill to the floor immediately. That is not fair. It is not fair in terms of those who come to this Senate wanting to represent their constituents, wanting to know what is in it for various income groups, various occupations.…”