Byron Dorgan: “It is not acceptable to me to have someone bring a bill to the floor that is amendable and then tell us, ``By the way…”

“It is not acceptable to me to have someone bring a bill to the floor that is amendable and then tell us, ``By the way, we have established a gate here, and the only people who can go through the gate are the ones we decide can go through the gate.'' The Coverdell IRA proposal, in my judgment, ought to be amended by a range of other proposals. One, for example, deals with reducing class size. I have a daughter in the third grade. Last year, that daughter was in a public school class with 30 students--30 in a class. Do I have a self-interest here as a parent? Of course I do. Do we think kids do better when they are in a smaller class? Of course they do. We know that. The studies demonstrate that. The question before us is not just about Coverdell IRAs, but about what our priorities are going to be. One hundred years from now, all of us in the Chamber are going to be gone.”