[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S10043]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REQUEST TO WORK OVERTIME

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Utah. I want to 
explain, again, what transpired just a couple of moments ago with 
regard to our unanimous consent request.
  For the information of all Senators, we made the request that the 
Senate have the opportunity to take up the HMO reform bill, the House-
passed HMO reform bill, Calendar No. 505, and that it be the pending 
business every day after the completion of the legislative business as 
outlined by the majority leader and the distinguished Senator from Utah 
today.
  Why are we suggesting this? We are proposing this because many of our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said that we do not have 
time to take up a careful consideration of HMO reform; we don't have 
the ability to consider a number of amendments that ought to be 
considered with legislation as complex as this.
  We understand that the Senate has spent days on other bills--150 
amendments on the defense bill, over 100 amendments on the highway 
bill, and over 50 amendments on just about every appropriations bill 
each. But the Republican leadership has said all we ought to have on 
HMO reform is three amendments. Why? Because we don't have time. That 
has been their premise. We don't have time to deal with this issue, but 
we have time to deal with a missile defense bill that we will debate in 
the morning, that would commit hundreds of billions of dollars over the 
course of many years to a missile system that has failed every single 
time it has been tested to date.
  The only criteria we would use to evaluate that system is 
technological feasibility, regardless of cost, regardless of 
effectiveness, and regardless of its implications for treaties around 
the world. Our Republican colleagues are asking us to commit to a 
missile defense system, opposed by the Pentagon, that would commit 
hundreds of billions of dollars. That is what the vote is about 
tomorrow, and we have time for it. But we don't have time for dealing 
directly with the concerns of millions of Americans who day by day are 
shut out of a health system because their insurance company is playing 
doctor.
  We are simply saying, if we don't have time, let's make time. Let's 
do what others have already done in past Congresses and certainly in 
other situations where production becomes a problem. Let us add a 
second shift. Let us address this issue on the second shift. Let's work 
longer. Let's make more hours. Let's do what we must to complete our 
work.
  It is only 6:20, and Senators have already left for the day. We 
didn't have a vote until 3:30 this afternoon to accommodate Senators 
who were traveling. Senators have just arrived. I am sure they would be 
more than willing to stay for a few hours more to debate and to 
consider carefully the HMO reform bill--6:20 in the evening and people 
are gone. Tomorrow we start with a vote at 9:30. We will have another 
vote at 5 o'clock, and we may be gone again.
  Mr. President, we are simply asking our colleagues to put in a full 
day's work, to do what others would do under these circumstances--to 
add a second shift, to work overtime, to complete our work in what days 
we have left in this session of Congress.
  We will continue to push for this approach and offer it in a sequence 
of requests simply to make the point that at 6:20 in the afternoon, our 
work shouldn't be done. At 6:20 in the afternoon, we shouldn't be 
leaving. I don't understand why we couldn't have completed our work on 
campaign finance reform. I don't understand why we shouldn't be on the 
floor debating that issue right now. But everybody is gone, and the 
clock keeps ticking and the calendar pages turn, and time runs out.
  We can run out the clock, but there is no reason why we can't make 
that clock work harder. There isn't any reason why we can't work 
longer, and we will make every effort to assure that the Senate does 
its job. I regret very much that we are not doing it tonight. I yield 
the floor.

                          ____________________