Thomas Daschle: “I add my voice to the majority leader's admonition to all of those who have amendments. He and I have worked on this…”

“I add my voice to the majority leader's admonition to all of those who have amendments. He and I have worked on this from the very beginning of the year and have used the regular order to accommodate all Senators, first in committee, and now on the floor. I don't have any qualms about the interests on the part of so many Senators to express themselves. That is what the legislative process is all about. But let me say this will not be the only bill we take up this year. There will be other legislation. It is fair to say that if cloture is filed--and I hope that will be unnecessary--it will probably be invoked. Senator Lott came to me a few minutes ago to express an interest in filing--even today. I urged him to hold off filing today in order to accommodate Senators who may have amendments that are not relevant. In order for that to happen, we have to see, give and take on both sides. We are going to have to have a unanimous consent agreement that if he holds off on filing cloture, we can have that vote, perhaps Wednesday, so we can finish on Friday. Like he has noted, we have campaign finance reform that is already part of a unanimous consent agreement scheduled for the week after. So there is no question that we are going to have to finish this bill next week. There are over a hundred amendments.…”