Don Nickles: “first, I will make a couple comments concerning those made by some of our Democratic colleagues who said they want to…”

“first, I will make a couple comments concerning those made by some of our Democratic colleagues who said they want to bring up the Patients' Bill of Rights. We have offered throughout the month of July to bring up the Patients' Bill of Rights. I will make a unanimous consent request to do it again. Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues haven't been able to take yes for an answer. In other words, I think they want to debate an issue, discuss an issue, have unlimited amendments, and we are not going to give them that. We only have 22 days left in this legislative session. We tried to get this up and considered and done in July. They wouldn't accept that request. In just a moment, I am going to make a unanimous consent request to bring it up with limited amendments. I will tell my colleagues, it will be three amendments a side. You can design any amendment any way you want. You can offer your proposal in any way that you want. We are going to give you an up-or-down vote on your proposal; we are going to have an up-or-down vote on our proposal. That is going to be in my request. You would have the right to do three amendments; we would have the right to do three amendments. It is the same request that we made in July. If you want this issue to be considered and passed, that is the way to do it. If you want to say we want to have this issue on the floor all month, as was the unanimous consent request made by the minority leader, that is not going to happen.”