Thomas Daschle: “I want to briefly thank those Senators on both sides of the aisle. This is a very important procedural agreement we have…”

“I want to briefly thank those Senators on both sides of the aisle. This is a very important procedural agreement we have reached, after some deliberation and a great deal of willingness to cooperate on the part of many Senators. There were many, many Senators who had expressed the hope that they could offer their amendments; they were precluded from doing that. Frankly, I am disappointed that they were precluded. But I will say this: I am also grateful to the majority leader for agreeing to have up-or-down votes on the class size amendment, on the dropout amendment, on the social promotion amendment, on the amendment with regard to report cards, and on the amendments Senator Wellstone will be proposing on the accountability. This represents, I think, a compromise that we hoped we could reach. It represents an extraordinary amount of good-faith effort on both sides. I think the Senators from Oregon and Tennessee ought to be commended as well for their patience and tolerance in working with all of our colleagues in bringing us to this point. It goes without saying, the managers of the bill, the Senator from Vermont and the illustrious and extraordinary ranking member, Senator Kennedy, deserve a great deal of credit. We have come a long way. We have reached a point now where we are going to be able to finish this bill--a very good bill that deserves support.”