Thomas Daschle: “I have not wanted to get into this until now, but I must say I applaud what the distinguished chairman has said in a…”

“I have not wanted to get into this until now, but I must say I applaud what the distinguished chairman has said in a couple of aspects. First of all, I think that it is true; up until now, there has been a good deal of effort on both sides to bring this bill to the floor. We wouldn't be here today were it not for the leadership of the Senator from Arizona and the tremendous work put forth by the Senator from South Carolina, as well as the Senator from Kentucky. It is the only way we got to this point. We got here because the ranking member and the chairman concluded that this bill needed to get to the floor, and we were under a timeframe within which to do that. That has now happened. It was only through that effort that we were able to get this far. And I think it is fair to say both sides have been working in good faith to bring us to this point. So there is really two questions here. No. 1, is it within the right of the majority leader to amend his legislation as he has proposed to do? And clearly he is within his rights to do that. The real question is, Is it in keeping with what we have established as the working order here? Are we in the same kind of partnership that we thought we had all the way through this process as we moved procedurally to the floor? The answer clearly is no; this was a surprise. Senator Hollings has been in the meetings discussing what would go in the managers' amendment until at least 4 o'clock this afternoon.”