Thomas Daschle: “as I said before the vote, it was not our desire to hold up this bill. I will reiterate my sincere desire to work with…”

“as I said before the vote, it was not our desire to hold up this bill. I will reiterate my sincere desire to work with the majority leader in finding an agreement. What I hope we might be able to do, perhaps, is to maybe run two tracks, get some debate and offer some of these amendments. We could maybe work out some short time agreements and have a good debate, rather than just putting the Senate in a quorum call, and then work simultaneously to see if we might not be able to address some of these concerns. I agree with the majority leader. We are close and perhaps we can find a way to accommodate many of the concerns raised on both sides of the aisle. But perhaps at the same time we might be able to accommodate some Senators who have been waiting patiently to be able to offer amendments. If we could do that, perhaps that might even accelerate our progress. I reiterate my sincere desire, and I think the desire on this side, to work in earnest and try to accommodate everyone and successfully complete this bill. I yield the floor.”