Thomas Daschle: “we have 7 weeks between now and the next legislative recess, a period within which a great deal of work must be done.…”

“we have 7 weeks between now and the next legislative recess, a period within which a great deal of work must be done. This has not been our most productive Congress so far. There are a lot of reasons why we have not been as productive as we would like it to be. I hope now as we get into the very critical months of April and May that we spend as much effort as we can to bring about the consensus we must have on a series of issues that this Congress must address. Some of them have deadlines. Some of them do not. But all of them are of extraordinary importance to this body and to the American people. There are two with deadlines that I hope we can begin work on in earnest this week. First and foremost, the Chemical Weapons Convention. There is no doubt we are facing the prospect that the United States could miss its opportunity to become a full-fledged member of the international convention responsible for bringing about the elimination of chemical weapons. If we fail to ratify the convention by the 29th of April, we will miss the opportunity to commit ourselves fully to the obligations of that convention and to the international community. We are told that enrollment of the convention requires at least 10 days, which means we only have until the 19th. In other words, we have fewer than 14 days within which all of the ramifications of that important convention can be addressed here on the Senate floor.”