Thomas Daschle: “let me just explain. I support this legislation, and I hope we can come to some resolution here. Obviously, this is an…”

“let me just explain. I support this legislation, and I hope we can come to some resolution here. Obviously, this is an important bill that ought to be passed. The problem is that, once again, we are presented with an untenable circumstance. Colleagues on this side of the aisle, certainly through no fault of the distinguished Senator from Arizona, have been precluded, to date, from offering our Patients' Bill of Rights. We are running out of time. We are running out of vehicles. We are running out of opportunities for us to have the kind of debate that we all have asked for and expected to have by this day. Because we are again put into a difficult position of not knowing how we are going to resolve that outstanding question, recognizing that it is at least as important as this issue, in spite of the fact that I do support S. 442, we are compelled to object today. My hope is that at some point in the not-too-distant future we can resolve the issue of how we will debate the Patients' Bill of Rights, and we will then resolve our ability to bring up the request made by the Senator from Arizona. So I object at this time with the hope that we can find some resolution at some point soon.”