Thomas Daschle: “Let me just commend the distinguished majority leader. Like him, I was not very optimistic we would be able to get to…”

“Let me just commend the distinguished majority leader. Like him, I was not very optimistic we would be able to get to this point. But I think it, again, demonstrates the interest on both sides in working together to accomplish a number of major legislative achievements this year, and this is a good one. This is an important issue. It is a bill that we needed to get done. The administration is very much in keeping with our desire to see the completion of this legislation in the nearest possible time. We have appropriations bills when we get back. I look forward to using the same approach as we try to address those as well. It will be my hope that during the month of July, we can do on appropriations what we have just done on this authorization bill.”