Thomas Daschle: “I come to the floor again not to pose a unanimous consent request, because we attempted that again last night, but to…”

“I come to the floor again not to pose a unanimous consent request, because we attempted that again last night, but to remind my colleagues that we have proposed to our colleagues on the majority that we would be happy to agree to a unanimous consent that would allow us an up-or-down vote on the amendment that is now the subject of a motion to proceed. We had said we were prepared to do that last Friday. We had said that it is important for us to have a good, vigorous debate about the amendment, but now there is a debate among the majority apparently about several versions of the amendment they want to use. Usually, when someone is in the majority, they come to the floor with a majority draft, hopefully a draft that has been passed out of the committee with careful consideration and thoughtful debate. That has not happened in this case. This amendment never came out of the committee. It was simply put on the calendar and now it is the subject of a debate on the motion to proceed. Even with all of that, we said if they want to have a debate on that amendment, that is fine.”