Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will continue to work through the appropriations process by beginning consideration of H.R. 2658, the Department of Defense appropriations bill. Last week the Senate was able to complete the military construction appropriations bill and the legislative branch appropriations bill. The hard work of Chairman Stevens, Senator Campbell, Senator Hutchison, and the Democratic leader enabled us to work swiftly on those measures. We are expected to continue this work by completing action on several more appropriations measures this week. Two additional bills are ready for action. They are the Homeland Security bill and the Labor-HHS- Education bill. With respect to the Defense appropriations bill today, the two managers will be here throughout the afternoon and, therefore, Senators should be prepared to come to the floor to offer their amendments. Any votes ordered on those amendments will be stacked to begin at approximately 5:15 or 5:30. If an amendment is not available for a vote at that time, it would be my intent to have a vote on an executive nomination. Later this afternoon we will announce the precise time and subject of today's vote. We will have busy sessions this week to complete the bills I have previously mentioned. Therefore, rollcall votes can be expected each day. I also want to take a moment this afternoon to thank Chairman Lugar for his hard work and diligence throughout last week's consideration of the State Department authorization. I had hoped that the bill could have been completed last week. However, a number of extraneous issues not related to the underlying subject slowed the bill's passage. It is important and it is appropriate for the Senate to pass a State Department authorization as well as foreign aid authorization. Every Member does have a right to amend, but I would encourage Members to show restraint and allow the Senate to complete its work on this measure. There will be other opportunities for these nongermane amendments, and I hope we will be able to resume the bill for amendments that relate to the issues of the Department of State and foreign aid. On Thursday of this week, Prime Minister Tony Blair will be addressing a joint meeting of Congress in the afternoon. We will have further information and announcements about that as the week goes forward. I look forward to a productive week, a very busy week, and do believe we will make tremendous progress in terms of advancing these appropriations bills.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I yield to the chairman.

Mr. FRIST. We intend to go to either Homeland Security or Labor-HHS. I will turn to the distinguished chairman either now or in a few minutes to comment on that as we go forward.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Once we have this last vote, there will be no more rollcall votes today. We will be voting on Monday. We may have several votes on Monday but after 5 o'clock. We will be on Defense on Monday, and, again, we probably will have several votes Monday evening. After this vote, we will be going back to State Department authorization. We would like to finish that bill. In order to do that, we would need to be considering amendments that have something to do with State authorization and not nongermane amendments. The intention is to attempt to finish that bill. We will not have any rollcall votes today. But again I make the plea with my colleagues to stay for amendments that are on State Department authorization as we go forward. Again, this will be the last rollcall vote, this one right now, until after 5 o'clock on Monday.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let me just very briefly add to that.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume debate on S. 925, the State Department authorization bill. During yesterday's session, we were able to dispose of a number of amendments to the measure, and we will continue working aggressively through amendments this morning. I encourage any Member who does have an amendment to the bill to contact the chairman or the ranking member as soon as possible so we can organize an orderly schedule for the consideration of the amendments. I do ask my colleagues that they bring forward amendments that are relevant to the underlying legislation. Unfortunately, over the course of yesterday afternoon and yesterday evening, a number of nonrelevant issues were mentioned and talked about as possible amendments. It is important that we complete action on this very important bill--really these three very important bills together--after which we will go to the appropriations process. In order to accomplish that, we need to focus on the bill itself. I ask and make that plea to my colleagues that we stay, through an orderly process, on the bill with relevant amendments. I am aware of every Senator's right to amend and to bring anything to the floor they would like but out of consideration for an orderly, thoughtful schedule that allows us to continue with the authorization process underway and then proceed to the very important appropriations process, we do need people to be as cooperative as possible with the chairman and ranking member. We will have rollcall votes throughout the day. Senators will be notified when that first vote is scheduled. It is expected that we will consider and complete action, as I mentioned earlier, on appropriations bills this week. We will initially go to, after completion of the bill that is on the floor, the legislative branch appropriations to be followed by the military construction appropriations bill. As I said clearly earlier in the week, we will be voting on Friday. So I do want our colleagues to expect rollcall votes tomorrow. Depending on how things go over the course of the morning and the afternoon and this evening, we will have a much better idea as to whether we will be voting late in the day on Friday or earlier in the day. Again, I have tried to make it very clear through an orderly process that we can get through the schedule that is set out, which includes these appropriations bills. There is a lot of work to do this week, and Members should prepare for a busy session today and tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. No, we will not and there is no unanimous consent being propounded. We have had discussions and we will have. Right now my only intent is to move off the State Department authorization and get to the bill the Senator is concerned about. We can have discussions about that. Now, so we can move off of the State Department authorization, we have a statement?

Mr. FRIST. We will work with both sides of the aisle. My objective is to get to the supplemental as soon as possible so we can address these issues. Once we get to it, no commitments have been made at this juncture in terms of the number of amendments and as to whether or not we will finish all debate tonight, which would be nice, so we can vote in the morning, or continue debating tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the leadership on both sides of the aisle have been in conversation. For the benefit of our colleagues, so they can plan for tonight and I guess begin to plan for tomorrow, I will state where we are. It is important that we move to the appropriations bills. The intent was to do everything possible to finish the bill we have been on for the last 2 days, but we have not been successful, although very close. We plan on moving to the legislative branch appropriations bill shortly. We have been working over the last hour to put together--which we have done successfully--a finite group of amendments from both sides of the aisle. We have them written on a piece of paper and have made a decision to work off that list once we return to the bill we have been discussing today. The intent very shortly is to set the current bill aside, go to the legislative branch appropriations bill--Chairman Stevens will be doing that shortly--followed by the military construction appropriations bill. Following that, we will return to the State Department authorization. In terms of voting tonight, we likely will be voting later tonight, although until we get on the legislative branch appropriations bill, I cannot say for certain that we will. The intent is to be voting tonight to complete that bill and to go on to military construction tonight as well. That is the intent. For planning purposes, over the next 2\1/2\ hours we expect to have no rollcall votes and ask people to stay in touch with their respective sides in terms of plans after about 8:30 tonight for rollcall votes. I do hope we will be able to return to the State Department authorization bill as soon as we complete the other two. Until we address the issues and see how many amendments we have on legislative branch and military construction, I cannot say with certainty whether or not we will be returning to that tomorrow, but that is the intent. The intent will be to finish that bill tomorrow. That is the general understanding as to what the plan will be tonight.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as I have said since Monday, our intention is to vote tomorrow morning. As you can tell from the comments in the last few minutes, there are a lot of people who do not want to vote tonight. They do not want to vote tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do. The appropriations bills are critical to address. The plan will be to vote tomorrow for sure. I don't know how late in the day it will be. The intention would be to finish as soon as reasonable tomorrow. With that, in terms of the request, we will consider as to whether or not we would be able to lay over the votes tomorrow morning and have all the debate tonight. We will consider that. I don't want to commit to that although I will commit to having no votes in the next 2\1/2\ hours. We will work together, and if at all possible be able to stack those votes in the morning.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to introduce an amendment to the foreign assistance authorization bill regarding Colombia. Colombia is one of the oldest democracies in our hemisphere. It is under threat by narcotics traffickers, leftwing guerrillas and rightwing paramilitaries. We have been working with the government for several years to combat the twin threats of narcotics and terrorism and to strengthen democracy. President Uribe and the Republic of Colombia have made great strides in implementing Plan Colombia, eradicating the production of illegal drugs, providing alternatives to coca and poppy cultivation for impoverished Colombians, establishing law and order, and taking steps to protect human rights and to administer justice. The total area of coca cultivation in Colombia has declined markedly in the past 3 years, while drug seizures are up. The armed forces of Colombia are better trained than four years ago. Colombia is also training and equipping 78,000 new police officers who will be stationed in hundreds of rural towns where there is currently little or no police presence. The Armed Forces are defeating the narcotics traffickers and terrorists in Colombia by capturing to date a total of 3,553 guerillas and 1,336 members of paramilitaries; destroying more than 1,000 coca laboratories; confiscating billions of gallons of solid and liquid chemicals used for manufacturing cocaine; and seizing more than 4,000 weapons from guerillas and traffickers. Colombia has extradited 78 individuals to the United States to face trial for narcotics and terrorist charges. The government of Colombia has made progress in combating crime; during the first months of 2003, homicides have declined 20 percent and kidnappings by 40 percent when compared to the same period in 2002. The government of Colombia is committed to increased defense spending from 3.5 percent of GDP in 2002 to 5.8 percent by 2006, thereby enlarging the armed forces by 126,000 troops. The government of Colombia is taking steps to protect the human rights of the people of Colombia by establishing the national early warning system to prevent forced displacement and human rights violations; and by providing protection for 2,731 human rights workers, labor leaders, journalists, and local government officials. The government is establishing a judge advocate general center and Military Penal Justice Corps with U.S. assistance. It is also creating human rights units under the Colombian Attorney General's Office, the armed forces, and the national police. The government of Colombia is taking steps to ensure the fair administration of justice in Colombia by establishing 31 Casas de Justicia that have handled 1.6 million cases to date; by creating 19 oral trial courtrooms and training 3,400 judges to administer justice; and by training Colombian law enforcement personnel judges, and prosecutors in anticorruption, money-laundering, and antikidnapping measures. The United States should continue its strong support of the efforts of President Uribe, the government, and people of Colombia to stop narcotics trafficking, end terrorism, strengthen democracy, and protect human rights. amendment no. 1196

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, to review, the plan will be to shortly go to legislative branch appropriations. We will not have any rollcall votes over the next 2\1/2\ hours.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am very pleased that the Democratic leader agrees we can complete this very important piece of legislation. The fact it has been such a long time since we have carried out our real responsibility in this authorizing legislation, trying to do what we are doing in a very systematic, orderly way, rather than throwing it on appropriations which, in the past, historically, has been done, I hope reflects my intent and the intent of all of us working together to go about this in an orderly way, the way that is most appropriate. We have a lot of work to do. We have made a lot of progress this week. We knew at the outset of the week we were setting out an ambitious agenda, in the sense that it is really what I believe our responsibility is to do. We tried not to rush things too much and consider amendments, some of which are not germane to the underlying bill. It is the right of every U.S. Senator to offer those. Those amendments have come from the other side of the aisle. I know every effort is being made to focus on the bill itself. We will be in session today. We will be in session late tonight. We will be in session tomorrow. We will be in session, voting, tomorrow. My goal remains to be to finish this bill. We will do legislative appropriations. We can discuss when to do that that is most appropriate on both sides of the aisle. We are going to bring that to the floor. We can do it tonight. We can do it tomorrow. We can do it tomorrow afternoon. My goal would be to be able to complete that bill and go to military construction as well. We can talk among ourselves. The Democratic leader stressed the importance of getting amendments forward. We just talked through a list from the other side of the aisle. I just talked to Chairman Lugar. We have really just two or three amendments. So for the first time we have sort of a finite list of amendments with which we can work. I ask that the chairman and ranking member do their very best to cull through the amendments. As the Democratic leader said, if they do not need a rollcall vote, let's try to work through this in an orderly way. I do want our colleagues to know, for scheduling, just as I said last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday--today, I am saying it again, we are going to go through these next three bills. If we can complete this bill in a few hours, which the Democratic leadership said we cannot do--and I respect that if we really can't. I hope we could. Talking to Chairman Lugar, he says he thinks we can. But if you believe it is absolutely impossible, then it may be that later tonight we will set this aside and we will begin the other two bills, which we will be addressing. We will be voting on them with rollcall votes. I will talk to Chairman Stevens in a few minutes and see what he thinks is best, in terms of that overall schedule. If there were any chance we could systematically go through this bill and complete the work--and again the chairman and ranking member have done a great job in terms of considering the whole range of amendments thus far, but if we can complete that bill and get started on legislative appropriations, and military construction, if we can do that tonight we wouldn't even have to vote tomorrow at all. I know we just heard that is not going to be possible in terms of the range of amendments as we go forward. We are voting today, tonight, we will stay on this bill a while longer, and we can talk. If you believe we need to set it aside so we can go to the appropriations, we can come back to this as soon as we finish this appropriation.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have two amendments to establish legislative exchange programs on behalf of the United States Senate. These two amendments will authorize funds necessary to create formalized, cooperative relationships between the U.S. Senate and the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, as well as between the United States and the National People's Congress of the People's Republican of China. The genesis of these initiatives is the hard work and deep interest that two of our colleagues have shown in pursing a deeper relationship with our counterparts in those two bodies. Senator Lott, during a visit to Russian 2 years ago, began a very fruitful dialogue with members of the Federation Council that has continued at many levels since. I myself had the opportunity earlier this year to meet with the Mr. Mikhail Margelov, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Federation Council, Senator Lugar's counterpart, and I look forward to playing host this fall to my counterpart, Mr. Sergei Mironov, the Chairman of the Federation Council. At that time it is our joint intention to sign a memorandum of agreement that will formalize a regularized relationship between our two legislative bodies. U.S.-Russian relations are at a point today that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago. We are joined in a growing exchange of trade and investment, the open travel of tourists and the business community, and cooperation on the central threat facing our two nations--the scourge of global terrorism. We have our disagreements, but for the most part these are the normal disagreements that exist between any friendly nations. It is my firm belief that as part of our relationship with Russia, we should establish an institutional relationship with our counterparts in the Federation Council to examine our mutual interests and craft solutions that reflect our shared interests. In the case of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, I would like to credit Senator Ted Stevens for his initiative in pursuing a more regularized relationship. It is my intention to invite my counterpart, Mr. Wu Bangguo, the Chairman of the National People's Congress, to visit the United States later this year or early next year. As an aside, I have the privilege to lead a delegation of eight Senators to China earlier this year. This delegation was hosted by Chairman Wu during our 3-day stay. He was a gracious host and provided us with an outstanding schedule of appointments during our stay. But beyond this, we also had very candid and complete conversations about the challenge and opportunities in the U.S.-China relationship. I will not suggest that there are not problems, but it was remarkable how openly Chairman Wu was willing to discuss these issues in an attempt to understand our perspective, if not find common ground. I detect on both sides an optimism about U.S.-Chinese relations that has not existed in well over a decade. By deepening our relationship with the National People's Congress, I am confident we can fortify that optimism and create real potential to solve some of the problems that have plagued our relationship in the past. I urge immediate adoption of these two amendments. Amendment No. 1186

Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.

Mr. FRIST. That would be the intention for tonight. We will be able to continue tonight, and as to whether or not we will be voting in the morning we will discuss among ourselves.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I would like to notice the passing this week of Eugene Augustine Jenkins, Jr. of Maryland, a loyal Senate staff member and legal counsel to several senators over the course of almost four decades. Gene Jenkins came to the Senate in 1953 after serving in the Air Force as an Assistant Judge Advocate General from 1951 to 1953, and after receiving bachelor and law degrees from Georgetown University. He worked for Senators J. Glenn Beall and Charles McC. Mathiais of Maryland, Senator Winston Prouty of Vermont and Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska. During his long years of service, Gene Jenkins garnered a reputation not only as a fine lawyer but also as the most meticulous historian and archivist that a Senator could hire to prepare their historical records and papers. A Senator who hired Gene Jenkins would have to hid the fact by hiding Jenkins' office because Jenkins' reputation was so well known that if a Senator had hired him, it clearly signaled that the Senator was about to retire. A member of the family that once owned Jenkins Hill, which we now call Capitol Hill, Gene Jenkins not only served the Senate modestly but he was a public servant and good citizen in the truest sense, dedicating himself to numerous voluntary organizations, including his beloved Society of the Cincinnati and the Stewards of Georgetown. He was devoted to his church and volunteered for many years with Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity. He will be buried this coming Monday at St. Joseph' Parish in southern Maryland, one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in North America, near his family home in Pomfret where the Jenkins family has been buried for generations--a final resting place befitting a historian. May he rest in peace.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will have to make some big decisions this morning in terms of planning for the day, and we will be in touch, both on the floor and off the floor, out of respect for completion of this bill as soon as possible. I appreciate it.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, before starting the bill, I will take 2 minutes on leader time to comment on an issue that is important to me personally but that I think is important to our concerns for people around the world, and that is the President's trip right now to Africa. On Tuesday of this week, on Goree Island, President Bush spoke about the extraordinary contributions of Africa's sons and daughters to America's culture and ideals. The moral vision of such leaders as Frederick Douglas--many of us have had the opportunity to visit his wonderful home that sits on a hill in Washington just a few miles from where we stand now--Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the list goes on, have penetrated deep into America's consciousness and illuminated America's core principles. Africans who were brought to America in chains, and their descendants who subsequently suffered cruelty and injustice, helped set America free. It is a story that must be told and be told to future generations so that we will always work toward realizing our Nation's great purpose--in a word: Freedom. America and Africa are working together to expand freedom across the globe. The President is celebrating much of that in his current trip. In late August, I will be taking a delegation of Senators back to Africa once again. On the Senate floor today, and yesterday, is very important and significant legislation, the Millennium Challenge Account, which promises to invest in the continent's abundant political and economic opportunities. We all celebrate the $15 billion commitment in global HIV/AIDS relief by the President, which the Senate confirmed under the leadership of Chairman Lugar last month. We know that will help turn the tide against HIV/AIDS and, I should add, malaria and tuberculosis. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which we addressed 3 years ago now, is alleviating poverty in Africa. Those of us who travel regularly hear again and again that it is having an impact that stimulates and spurs on that African entrepreneurship. So I take this moment to commend President Bush for his bold and substantive leadership in helping Africa's leaders meet their nation's challenges and to realize the nation's opportunities, and also to recognize the leadership of Chairman Lugar on each of these other issues that I mentioned: The Millennium Challenge Account, the global fight against HIV/AIDS, the African Growth and Opportunity Act. These efforts, and many others--bipartisan, both sides of the aisle--will help set Africa on a course to maximum freedom and opportunity for all of its people and strengthen those historic ties that bind our two great lands. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we will be voting on a cloture motion to allow the Senate to proceed to debate S. 11, the Patients First Act. I want to strongly urge my colleagues to vote for the motion to proceed. We have had a good debate over the last three days, and it is clear that right now patients across the country are facing a crisis of access to quality health care. Congress needs to act. The upcoming vote will allow us to fully debate this critical issue. If action is delayed, we know what will happen: Patients will suffer, doctors will continue to flee their practices, and more States will be added to the AMA crisis list. Since we last debated this issue seven more States have joined the list, that is nearly a 60 percent increase over last year. I have received letters from doctors all over America, including from my home State of Tennessee. Premiums in Tennessee have gone up 68 percent over the last four years, and Tennessee is not even considered a crisis state by the AMA yet. One doctor from Waverly, TN writes: My insurance premiums as a general surgeon have jumped over 70 percent in the last four years. The current crisis has forced me to limit doing any moderate to high risk surgery . . . There are counties around mine that have lost the services of their general surgeons who have opted to limit their practices to family practices . . . rather than continue to pay the high premiums that are prohibitive for a surgeon in rural Tennessee. Another doctor from Madisonville, TN writes: My wife and I came to Madisonville, Tennessee, 24 years ago as national health service corps doctors. We helped start the Women's Wellness and Maternity Center, Tennessee's first out of hospital birth center. We depend on the obstetrical service at Sweetwater Hospital for C-sections and consultation. This doctor goes on tell me that because of high malpractice premiums Sweetwater has only one remaining obstetrician who is now forced to bear full responsibility for providing 24-hour maternity coverage and that efforts to recruit additional doctors have failed. As these real life stories show, this health care crisis is real and it is spreading. The current medical liability system is costly, inefficient and hurts all Americans. In addition to damaging access to medical services, the current medical malpractice system creates problems throughout the entire health care system. It indirectly costs the country billions of dollars every year in defensive medicine. The fear of lawsuits forces doctors to practice defensive medicine by ordering extra tests and procedures. Though the numbers are hard to calculate, well-researched reports predict savings from meaningful reform at tens of billions of dollars per year. It directly costs the taxpayers billions. The CBO has estimated that reasonable reform will save the federal government $14.9 billion over 10 years primarily through savings in Medicare and Medicaid. It impedes efforts to improve patient safety. The threat of excessive litigation discourages doctors from discussing medical errors in ways that could dramatically improve health care and save hundreds or thousands of lives. I am a strong supporter of patient safety legislation which I hope we will pass this year. But in addition to patient safety legislation, we need to address the underlying problem-- our liability system. We must reform this broken liability system. That is why I strongly support the Patients First Act. I want to thank my colleague, Senator McConnell, the majority whip, who skillfully led this debate. I also want to thank Chairman Gregg and Chairman Hatch for their longstanding leadership of this issue, and Senator Ensign, the lead sponsor of S. 11, who has seen the current crisis close up in his own State of Nevada. And finally, I want to thank Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. Her State has been the model of medical liability reform and has demonstrated that commonsense reforms work. I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Feinstein on this issue. We share the goal of putting patients first. The Patients First Act will protect access to care and ensure that those who are negligently injured are fairly compensated. Again, I encourage my colleagues to move this legislation forward. We cannot afford further delay. I yield the remainder of our time. Cloture Motion

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand the Democratic leader has made a motion to proceed to a bill on the calendar regarding the child tax credit and that the motion is pending. As my colleagues know, we have been considering critical legislation regarding the State Department reauthorization and are ready to proceed with that debate. The child tax credit bill is currently in conference. That conference is underway. We need to allow the conferees the opportunity to work through the regular order and reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills. Meetings are underway. We will be meeting later today on the very important issue of the child tax credit. Therefore, in order to allow the process to move forward on that issue and to allow us to return to the important pending legislation, I now move to table the motion to proceed and ask that the vote occur at 2 p.m. today and further that the pending motion be set aside until that time.

Mr. FRIST. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to table.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.