Don Nickles: “If my colleagues from Massachusetts and Louisiana and Montana wish to offer a substitute, they can vote for cloture. We…”

“If my colleagues from Massachusetts and Louisiana and Montana wish to offer a substitute, they can vote for cloture. We can consider their amendment. I am happy to vote on their amendment. If other Senators have different ideas, we would like to get to the bill. Yet, our colleagues on the other side, they say, 'We've got amendments,' but they do not let us vote on the amendments. They want to filibuster. They want to talk. But they do not want to vote. We want to vote. We want to give all Americans the same rights that we give Federal employees. If flextime is so bad, why don't my colleagues introduce a resolution or amendment to stop flextime for Federal employees? They can offer that as an amendment on this bill. Let us find out. Federal employees happen to like flextime. It works. It has not been abused. It is not employer-only. If my colleagues on the other side read the bill, it says 'mutually agreeable.' It does not say the employer has the sole decision or the employee has the sole decision. It says 'mutually agreeable.' That is in the bill. It works for Federal employees. Why don't we make it available for everybody else in America? Because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do not trust Americans? They do not trust businesspeople? They do not trust employees to be able to make this decision? The bill allows people, if they try comptime and they do not like it and they accumulate some hours and they did not use it, they can cash out.”