Thomas Daschle: “I will respond, if I could reclaim my time, and say that I know the President has expressed concern on several occasions…”

“I will respond, if I could reclaim my time, and say that I know the President has expressed concern on several occasions about the tendency for those of us who serve in the Congress to leave and then not to come back until close to the end of whatever CR timeframe we have been allotted. I think that is the President's concern, that if we were to go to Monday or Tuesday, most likely we probably would not revisit these questions until Monday or Tuesday. But we can certainly discuss the matter at greater length and attempt to see what opportunities for real progress we are going to be making. We are now 28 days into the new fiscal year, and we still have a lot of work, especially on appropriations bills, that remains to be done. So it would be my hope that we could maximize every day. And he is right; it is very rare that we have met on Saturdays--or Sundays, for that matter. It would not be our intention to make a regular practice of it, but these are extraordinary circumstances, without a doubt. I think each day should be used, with the maximum opportunity that each day affords us, to try to resolve these issues and get our work done. I don't like staying. I had plans this weekend myself. I was going to go home to South Dakota. It does not appear that is going to be possible. But I would say, certainly, if we are here we ought to be maximizing the use of our time. I think that is what the President intends.”