Kent Conrad: “we are here late on a Saturday afternoon as part of what has become truly a deeply flawed process. We have been…”

“we are here late on a Saturday afternoon as part of what has become truly a deeply flawed process. We have been presented with this huge stack of paper. I think this is well over 3,000 pages. We got it in the middle of the night. We didn't have a hard copy until somewhere after noon today. We are being told that we will vote on it shortly. It reminded me very much of attending one of the State of the Union Addresses in my first years in the Senate. It was in 1988. President Reagan was talking to the Nation, and he held up what was then a conference report that he reported was over a thousand pages long, weighing 14 pounds. Then he held up a reconciliation bill that was 6 months late and was 1,200 pages long, weighing 15 pounds, and a long-term continuing resolution of over 1,000 pages, weighing 14 pounds. He reminded us that was 43 pounds of paper and ink, and you had 3 hours--yes, 3 hours--to consider each. He said it took 300 people at his Office of Management and Budget just to read the bill so the Government would not shut down. He concluded that Congress should not send him another one of these. He said: If you do, I will not sign it. President Reagan was right. This is not the way we should do the people's business. We should not have, late on a Saturday, 3,000 pages; and there are not more than a handful of people here who know what is in it. I know what is in it for the State of North Dakota. I know that. But I don't know what else is in here.”