Jay Rockefeller: “I found myself on the telephone advising distinguished Senators with years of experience to vote for what we just voted…”

“I found myself on the telephone advising distinguished Senators with years of experience to vote for what we just voted on and then 5 minutes later to vote against it. But the fact is that, as the Senator from Washington indicated, there were procedural and technical writing problems, and the technical writing problems in the bill in fact were not addressed properly and were not done properly, and they have to be done properly. But make no mistake about it; the news of the day is not that we just had a vote on which some people thought they were going to vote no and they turned out voting yes or vice versa. The news of the day is that the Senator from Washington and the Senator from West Virginia have reached a very good agreement on a final version of the product liability reform that we think reflects the will and the objectives of Senators on both sides of the aisle.”