Thomas Daschle: “I have tried again tonight to appoint conferees on the Sudan Peace Act. The House took this simple step late last year.…”

“I have tried again tonight to appoint conferees on the Sudan Peace Act. The House took this simple step late last year. This will be the third time we have sought consent to take this very simple procedural step. Each time our Republican colleagues have objected. What is happening in Sudan is a travesty. The government in Khartoum, the same government, incidentally, that gave shelter to Osama bin Laden, is waging a brutal civil war against the Christians in the south of that country. We are reminded of the brutality of this war in occasional newspaper stories, but the people of that ravaged land live this brutality daily. We all have our views on what the final Sudan Peace Act should look like, and I understand that there is significant concern with some of the provisions of the House-passed version of this bill. That's to be expected. What is unexpected--and unacceptable--is that there would be an objection to a simple procedural step to get to conference to resolve these differences.”