Thomas Daschle: “I do not think we ought to leave Washington prior to the time the supplemental has been satisfactorily disposed of. I do…”

“I do not think we ought to leave Washington prior to the time the supplemental has been satisfactorily disposed of. I do not think we ought to take vacation until this legislation has been completed. I have indicated, just now, to Senator Lott that if we could reach some agreement--a finite list of amendments remaining on this bill, with an understanding of how long these amendments would require for debate--that I may be willing to enter into something I was not prepared to do earlier, which is to move to the supplemental prior to the time we complete our work on the Patients' Bill of Rights. We will complete our work on the Patients' Bill of Rights this week, and we will finish the supplemental this week, and the organizing resolution this week --or before we leave, whatever time it takes. I hope our House colleagues will choose not to leave town until the conference has been completed and until we have been able to deal with the conference as well. It should not take long in conference. But clearly that work must be done.”