Thomas Daschle

I would suggest we are 1 hour and one vote close. That is how close we are. I would be willing to settle for an hour of debate on either side and have the vote on Shays-Meehan this afternoon and send it off to the President. What we get…

The Senator from Wisconsin probably knows better than anybody in this Chamber the implications of doing nothing. No one has worked harder, provided greater leadership, and engendered more respect on both sides of the aisle than the Senator…

Well, the Senator from Massachusetts is as much of a legislative strategist as I am, and he and I and others have talked about what our recourse is given the intransigence on the other side. I suppose we have two options that I am aware…

We recognize that we have to get our work done in that regard, but we also recognize that there will be gaps, that there are other needs out there, legislatively, and there can be no greater needs than the request we made yesterday about a…

I agree completely with what the Senator just said. In a democracy, it is supposed to be of and by the people. But how can it be of and by the people when you need the millions of dollars it now takes to be a legitimate candidate anywhere…

I think it is a sad commentary that anyone could actually subscribe to the proposition that freedom of speech is directly related to the freedom to spend. The freedom to spend actually blocks out the freedom of speech, because if we are…

I don't know if there are many Congresses that have spent more time investigating than this one has. This Congress has probably spent more money and more time investigating than any since the early 1970s. And as the Senator from…

We simply want the opportunity to reflect the will of the majority of the Senate on an issue for which there is a moment of opportunity, from a historical perspective. This is our moment. If we fail in the next 6 weeks, we start all over…

So it is a sham. It is not a piece of legislation that can give confidence to any American today, not when the problems are as great as the ones suggested by the Senator from Illinois.

The issue, as we have noted now several times, has probably the most elaborate array of support by health care organizations, organizations that deal with this every day. Organizations on the front line of health care delivery have said…

Before we left for the August recess, Democrats made it very clear that it is essential that we not leave here before the end of the year without having taken up and passed the Patients' Bill of Rights. I think it is very clear, given the…

I am very deeply disappointed that the Senator from Kentucky has seen fit to object to this. We will continue to press this matter. We will look for other opportunities. I would much rather do it in an orderly fashion using the regular…

in July, less than a month and a half ago, the Senate voted unanimously on a resolution to declare there is a national crisis in agriculture, that we needed to take immediate action to address it. Following the unanimous passage of that…

we have 6 weeks remaining in the Congress. Those 6 weeks will define our efforts as a Congress. And this is the last matter that I wish to raise before our colleagues this afternoon--the agenda for those remaining 6 weeks. Time is short…

just before Congress left for the August recess, we suffered a staggering loss in our ``Capitol Hill family''--the deaths of Detective John Gibson and Officer J.J. Chestnut. Today, as we returned to our work here, we learned that we have…

As both of you know, the Hunt Building Corporation (HBC) constructed an 828-unit military family housing complex, known as the Centennial Housing Project, at Ellsworth Air Force Base in 1990 and 1991. Unfortunately, within a year of the…

I would certainly want to reiterate what the majority leader said at the beginning of his comments, which is that we have been negotiating now for some time in an effort to determine how we might bring to the floor the health care bills…

I think it is a fair construction. I give great credit to the chairman of the Finance Committee for making that point. The chairman of the Finance Committee did the responsible thing and was certainly showing, once again, his leadership in…

Mr. President, as I noted this morning, Democrats have supported and continue to support tax relief for working families. In 1993, we supported tax cuts for millions of working families making less than $30,000 per year through an…

I think we ought to add the Graham amendment and then limit it to the ones on this list. I don't want to see this list grow.

I also note that we all owe a debt of gratitude to the Senator from Tennessee, Senator Frist, for seizing the moment in his responsibility, first as a physician, and second as a Senator, to come on to the scene as he did. He served us and…

These are unquestionably significant issues that merit serious, objective review. For me and for the Democratic Senators on our investigation task force, the objective is simple: national security. We want the national security to be…

Late yesterday several of my colleagues took to the floor to discuss their views on the need for congressional action on encryption legislation. I would like to take this opportunity to briefly provide my thoughts on this important issue…

During the last decade, the devastating effect of low commodity and cattle prices has affected every household in the county. Commodity prices at the 1950 levels have contributed to the continuing exodus of our youth to cities for jobs…

I do hope that it will be bipartisan. The majority leader gave what I would view to be a pretty partisan report this morning with regard to the allegations pending on this particular matter, and I will have a very thorough response to the…