Thomas Daschle: “all week long the average length of time it has taken to have a vote has exceeded 30 minutes. That is just too long.…”

“all week long the average length of time it has taken to have a vote has exceeded 30 minutes. That is just too long. There is no way we are going to continue to accomplish as much as we need to accomplish before the end of next week if we have to be spending 30 and 40 minutes on a vote. We are going to have to start cutting off this time more aggressively. I want to put all colleagues on notice that we are not going to tolerate the extent to which our good will is violated as these amendments are voted upon. Please come over and vote within the 15 or 20 minutes allotted for the vote. Extending it twice as long is just unacceptable and a real disservice to all our colleagues who are waiting to do their work. Madam President, as I said, we have all day today and all day on Monday for Senators to offer amendments. I know Senator Dorgan is waiting to offer an amendment. There will be other Senators who will come to the floor. The authors of the steel amendment have kindly accepted our suggestion to set aside their amendment in order to accommodate other Senators who wish to have their amendments offered. I think it is very important that we use these days for full consideration of other amendments. It is my intention at this point to file cloture on the bill on Monday in order to have a cloture vote on Wednesday. So amendments will have to be disposed of prior to Wednesday.”