Thomas Daschle: “As I indicated earlier, Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of this legislation. So obviously I am very supportive of it.…”

“As I indicated earlier, Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of this legislation. So obviously I am very supportive of it. But it should be noted this legislation has not had a hearing, it has not been marked up in the committee. The majority leader--and it is his right to do so--is discharging the committee to bring this bill to the floor. Now, that is an abnormal procedure. That is not something we do every day. Yet the distinguished majority leader has seen fit to bring this bill to the floor without an official markup, and then to amend it with an amendment that we only saw late yesterday. And so it is really not normal legislative procedure to consider a bill of this import, even though there may not be much controversy associated with it, to discharge it, to amend it with an amendment nobody has seen, and to move in this process. So it is not only our concern for the disaster legislation but our concern for process here that makes me skeptical about the approach the distinguished majority leader has chosen to employ in this regard.”