Mark Hatfield: “the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Harkin] has presented an amendment that deals with a mutual concern of issues. I am grateful…”

“the Senator from Iowa [Mr. Harkin] has presented an amendment that deals with a mutual concern of issues. I am grateful that the Senator put together a way to deal with these issues. The only problem is that under the current parliamentary situation, this is an appropriations measure, and, as the Senator realizes, out of this rather extensive amendment, which is almost 100 pages, there is a lot of legislation in the amendment as well as earmarks relating to appropriations. I would have to, probably, raise a point of order against the amendment being considered on this vehicle. Both from the standpoint of our personal working relationship, that I treasure, and our mutual interest that we share on so many of these issues, I would not like to do that, and I would like to also assure the Senator that I am willing to cooperate and work with him to find some suitable alternative to this particular vehicle. It is fragile enough, without adding more problems to it, in terms of so much legislation. So, I just say I deeply regret the situation I am in, but in order to move this bill on through to a conference with the House and, hopefully, to the signature of the President, I wonder if the Senator would consider the possibility of postponing this action to a time when we could join together in partnership?”