Kent Conrad: “let me add my voice to the Chairman's voice on the question of amendments. We have gone back and looked over past budget…”

“let me add my voice to the Chairman's voice on the question of amendments. We have gone back and looked over past budget resolutions, and we have seen that there has been substantial duplication in amendments, all of them included in what the chairman calls a vote-arama. We believe if we all use a little more discipline we can reduce the number of amendments considered and still have a thorough debate on the key issues and the key differences between us. I am urging my colleagues to think if they have an amendment that is on No Child Left Behind, that they group together with other Senators who might be similarly inclined and offer an amendment together rather than three or four different amendments on the same subject. I ask our colleagues that we have a good, full debate, we use this week well, we express the differences between us in a responsible way, but at the end, that we do not have a whole series of relatively minor amendments or repetitive amendments so we can have the best expression of the Senate's position on the budget. I yield the floor.”