Thomas Daschle: “I concur entirely. I think we have gotten to the point now where it may just be a matter of a period of time before we…”

“I concur entirely. I think we have gotten to the point now where it may just be a matter of a period of time before we can submit the agreement and have a vote. But this is valuable time we are losing, and I know a lot of Members have come to me throughout the day expressing an interest in offering their amendments. I do not want to preclude them from doing so. I think they ought to come to the floor. I have agreed that we can go at some point tonight to third reading. So we will finish this bill tonight at some point. So to accommodate Senators who still have amendments, to ensure that we maximize what time we have left, whatever time it is going to take before we go to third reading, I encourage all of our colleagues to come over if they have amendments. As the distinguished majority leader said, working with our ranking member, who has done a remarkable job--he deserves an award for sitting in the Chamber as long as he has--we are ready to go to work. We would like to finish with those amendments that are not part of this agreement, and there are many of them. So come to the floor as quickly as you can and see if we can resolve these outstanding issues.”