Thomas Daschle: “Since this debate began, Democrats have worked in good faith for a compromise. We have compromised and compromised and…”

“Since this debate began, Democrats have worked in good faith for a compromise. We have compromised and compromised and compromised. The bipartisan Nelson-Breaux-Chafee compromise is a long way from the Lieberman bill. It preserves the President's authority to take away the union rights of homeland security employees as long as he states there is a need, and it accedes to the President's demand that we waive civil service protections for Department employees. In fact, when it comes to new flexibility to hire, fire, and redeploy workers, there is absolutely no difference between the Gramm amendment and the Nelson compromise. The difference with our approach and the Gramm approach is simple: We require the Department to consult--to consult--with employee representatives as they develop a new personnel system, and if an agreement between management and employees cannot be reached, then management's proposal can be imposed by a Federal panel comprised entirely of the President's appointees. You can't get any more reasonable than that. Yet to prevent a vote on this bipartisan compromise, the Republicans, as I have noted, have blocked cloture not once or twice but now on five occasions--three times on the Lieberman bill and twice on their own bill. They filibustered because they said they wanted an up-or-down vote on their bill. We offered them that. They filibustered again because they said the vote on the Gramm bill had to come first.”