Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I announce for the information of my colleagues that, in consultation with the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Senator Dorgan, Senator Stabenow, Senator McCain, Senator Cochran, and other interested Senators, the Senate will begin a process for developing proposals that would allow for the safe reimportation of FDA-approved prescription drugs.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it looks as if we will have final passage, and then we will have two rollcall votes. For scheduling what will come, I announce that we will be in session tomorrow briefly to finish clearing some legislation, but we will not have rollcall votes tomorrow. We are also attempting to clear additional executive nominations, including Mark McClellan to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Following Friday's session, we will reconvene on Monday, March 22. I previously announced there will be no rollcall votes on that day. However, we will resume consideration of the FSC/ETI bill on that day. I will have more to say on that in closing later tonight. Having said that, following the last vote tonight, the next vote will occur on Tuesday, March 23. We will go to final passage now, and then two rollcall votes on the judges.

Mr. FRIST. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. FRIST. I thank Senator Domenici and Senator Nickles for working so hard to resolve this issue. I understand the difficult position that Senator Domenici finds himself in this year with regard to Yucca Mountain. I want him to know that he has my support in getting the necessary resources for Yucca Mountain in the Energy and water appropriations bill without having to take funding from other programs in the bill if the President's proposed law change is not enacted. (At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that following the vote on the adoption of the budget resolution, the Senate proceed to executive session and to consecutive votes on the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 562 and 565. I further ask unanimous consent that following the votes, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, what we are doing, so people will stay for another 15 minutes or so, is we are going to act on 2 of the 12 judges who were reported by the Judiciary Committee last Thursday. The judges have been cleared on our side and are ready to have a voice vote on each nomination. I understand there is going to be a request for a rollcall vote from the other side of the aisle. If no one requests such a vote, I will be prepared to announce that the vote on adoption of the budget resolution be the final vote prior to the recess, but if votes are needed on the judges, then Senators should be prepared to stay for these two rollcall votes.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 572, 573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 580, 586, 587, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the Chair, I ask the Senator from Vermont if he would consider making one of the two--I think the judge from Arizona--Calendar No. 565, a voice vote?

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will work toward completion of our consideration of S. Con. Res. 95, the budget resolution. There are 14 hours remaining under the statutory time limit for debate. Under the Budget Act it is in order to yield back time, and that may occur at the managers' discretion over the course of this morning and early afternoon. Once time is used or yielded back, we would expect to begin a series of rollcall votes which would include passage of the resolution. Again, the timing for that final vote will be determined by the number of amendments and how soon we get to the series of rollcall votes. I do want to encourage our colleagues that once we begin that series of rollcall votes, we do it in a very timely, orderly fashion. We made very good progress on the resolution yesterday, conducting six rollcall votes and disposing of eight amendments. The chairman and ranking member are here today on the floor ready to work through the amendments to the resolution. Therefore, Senators should expect a very busy day, as we all know and have appropriately planned for a late evening tonight, with rollcall votes throughout.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. I object to further proceedings.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Friday, March 12. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow the Senate will be in a period of morning business. There will be no rollcall votes tomorrow, but we will be working to clear several items for passage. It has been a long day and a late night and will be an early morning, but it was a worthy effort, as we were able to complete our work on the budget. I thank everyone again. I will make further announcements tomorrow on schedule when we return from recess.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Harkin Amendment. I'm against raising taxes. And that is exactly what this amendment is--a tax increase and a large one. Moreover, it is very regressive. It raises taxes on many people who can't afford it. However, I share the overall goal of reducing tobacco use. Smoking is still the number one killer in America, though obesity is now a close second, a should be addressed by Congress. As a heart and lung transplant surgeon, I know very well the results of this deadly habit, and I have consistently supported reasonable FDA regulation of tobacco which focuses on youth consumption. I hope that we can eventually reach agreement on a package that will give FDA reasonable authority to regulate tobacco and provide a buy-out for our tobacco farmers. I encourage my colleagues who support this amendment to work to accomplish that worthy public health goal.

Mr. FRIST. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to a resolution that is at the desk regarding the recent bombings in Spain; provided further that following the reporting of the resolution there be a brief moment of silence; provided further that each leader be recognized for up to 5 minutes each, and that Senators Allen and Dodd be permitted to speak for up to 2 minutes each. I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate then proceed to a vote on the adoption of the resolution with no intervening action or debate; further, that following that vote the preamble be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the efforts of our colleagues, Senators Allen and Dodd, we have this resolution before the Senate expressing our condolences to the people of Spain. We will shortly vote on this resolution. It is with a heavy heart that I rise. In a phone call earlier today, I told the Ambassador of Spain what the Senate will tell the people of Spain tonight through this resolution: We are with you; you are not alone in your grief. This morning in Madrid, Spain, at the height of rush hour, 10 terrorist bombs ripped through railway trains and stations killing over 190 people and wounding 1,240 more. Mothers, fathers, students, children, were struck down as they went about their normal daily life-- a tragedy we in the United States known only too well. Spain did not learn about the need to defend democracy or how to fight terrorism on September 11, 2001. Sadly, this lesson was thrust upon the Spanish people long ago. Their response to our darkest moment will long be remembered in America. As the people of Spain mourn their victims tonight, we mourn with them. We do not yet know the identity of the culprits. Officials are pursuing every lead. But whoever committed this atrocity will be found and they will be punished. I say to the people of Spain: America is with you. We stand in front of you, in back of you, to your left, and to your right. We grieve with the families who bear so much sorrow and we grieve for their loved ones whose lives have been so unjustly cut short. We will not forget this day. We will fight until the last cowardly murderer is brought to justice.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning we resume consideration of the budget resolution. There are now 27 hours remaining for debate on that resolution. The chairman and ranking member are here and are ready to continue with the consideration of amendments. Under the order from last night, following Senator Ensign's remarks, Senator Murray will offer an amendment related to education. Following the Murray amendment, Senator Graham of South Carolina will offer an amendment regarding TRICARE. Rollcall votes will therefore occur throughout the day. We will complete the budget resolution this week. It will be a long day today and late tonight, I assume, as well as tomorrow and tomorrow night. I ask for the cooperation of all Members as we do everything we possibly can to assist the managers in completing the budget resolution. Mr. President, once we get on the bill, I have a short statement.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have a short statement I will give, and I assume the Democratic leader will have a statement. Following that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Nevada be recognized.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to open by congratulating the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and ranking member and all committee members for the outstanding work they have done in bringing this resolution to the floor in a very timely manner. It was a little over a month ago that the President of the United States transmitted his proposed budget to the Congress, and the Budget Committee, under real time constraints, was able to hold hearings and debate, mark up, and report its own congressional budget plan and bring it to the floor last Thursday evening. My experience with budget resolutions on the Senate floor tells me that it will become very hectic, really beginning today and tomorrow and the next day--over the next 3 days. There is a limited amount of time, as we all know. There are 27 hours remaining for debate on that resolution as of this morning. That time will end up passing very quickly, particularly when we have a recess sitting on the other end awaiting completion of this resolution. As I mentioned earlier, we will complete this budget resolution this week before the recess. Since we have a limited time, I want to right upfront pay tribute to Chairman Nickles and one other Senator this morning. Chairman Nickles, as we all know, will be leaving the Senate at the end of his fourth term. After 2 years as chairman of the Budget Committee, this will be the last Federal budget he will manage on the Senate floor. Last year, with his first budget resolution as chairman, we were able to complete a budget resolution in record time. Eighty amendments were offered last year and were all considered on the floor. That was the third highest ever considered on the budget resolution in history. In 1998, there were 106 amendments. Last year was the third highest. I have had the opportunity to serve on the Budget Committee in the past and I know it is a very difficult assignment; it is a demanding committee. But I believe the ranking member would agree with me, while the ranking member and the chairman have not always agreed on policy, Senator Nickles has maintained a fair and open and collegial committee on which to work. Six years before Senator Nickles was first elected to the Senate, in December 1974, Sam Ervin, the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Governmental Operations, wrote: I have no doubt that the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 will stand as a monument to the 93rd Congress and its devotion to our constitutional system of Government. This is the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the historic legislation which established the Senate Budget Committee, established the Congressional Budget Office, and established the procedures that we are involved in today in considering a congressional budget resolution. Many did not expect that what at the time was a completely new process to survive. Indeed, it has survived over the last 30 years. In a way, over those 30 years, it certainly had its bumps and bruises. Just down the road from Senator Ervin's home, one Senator, and only one Senator in this Chamber today, has served on the Budget Committee from its very beginning, and that is Senator Fritz Hollings. He has been there from the very beginning. For 2 years, in 1979 and 1980, Senator Hollings--and this was when Ed Muskie left the Senate to serve as Secretary of State under President Carter--also served as its chairman. Just a little bit of budget trivia: As I was looking through the history, the first reconciliation bill was, indeed, crafted under Chairman Hollings' leadership in 1980. Senator Hollings was instrumental in the first major reforms to the Federal budget process, being one of the authors, along with Senators Gramm and Rudman, of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, more familiarly known as Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. I mention Senator Hollings in part because of this long history, and I discussed some of it with him last night at dinner. As we all know, he too will be voluntarily leaving the Senate at the end of this Congress. So this is his last budget resolution debate on the Senate floor, and just like the 30 debates before, I am sure he will not disappoint the Senate with his contribution to this debate over the next 3 days. We have begun deliberating a blueprint for next year's Federal budget, and that is exactly what it is; it is truly a blueprint. For those who may be observing these proceedings for the first time, it may appear we are passing laws on spending for our national defense, education, or health programs, or it may appear we are enacting tax legislation, but we are not. Listening to the debate it may sound like it but that is not what we are doing. It is really not unlike a family sitting around the kitchen table at the beginning of a new year discussing and estimating how much income they will have over the course of the next 12 months, how that income will be spent and how it should be allocated to the basic needs, whether it is to their shelter, food, or health care, and then how much they should save for their children's needs. It might be for schooling or it might be for their own retirement. That is exactly what we are doing, or it is very similar to what we are doing, over the course of this week in this 50 hours of debate when we are adopting a congressional budget plan. Just like that family sitting around the kitchen table, we are going to have differences and those differences are going to be expressed. There will be strong opinions on how our income should be divided among what people project as demands that will come and demands that we have today. Once we come to an agreement on a budget plan, which we will in the next 3 days, just like that family, we will be tasked to implement it by passing the revenue and spending totals that are assumed in that blueprint. We will also be asked to stick to it throughout the year, and so we will be putting up some roadblocks and some warning signals in our budget plan to remind us if we get off track or if we begin to go astray. Indeed, that is the importance of passing this budget resolution. There are differences, just like sitting around that table in a family, when planning a budget. As we have heard over the last several days, and we will hear for the next 3 days, there will be debate and an amendment process. The big difference between what goes on here and what goes on with that family is size, the obvious one. Another difference is that what we plan here can have a direct impact on that family sitting around that kitchen table. Will we keep that family's taxes from increasing next January by planning our budget here to prevent that child tax credit, now $1,000, from falling to $700 per child, thus taking $300 per child away from that family? Will we plan to keep the 10-percent rate bracket from dropping next January from $4,300 to $12,000 as a threshold for joint filers? Will we plan to prevent the standard deduction for that married couple, and this is known as the marriage penalty tax, from dropping next January and thereby continuing to penalize them simply because they are married? All of these, which we are talking about in the resolution, will keep families from having to pay more beginning January. In fact, these three tax items alone could mean the difference of over $13 billion in additional take-home pay next year for nearly 38 million hard-working families. Add that up and it becomes over $100 billion in additional income to those families sitting around those kitchen tables over the next 5 years. So what we plan for in our own Federal budget can and will impact the budgets of millions of America's families in a very direct way. This is a challenging budget year. We are all aware it is a political year, with the Presidential election this November, and thus reaching real consensus on a budget will be difficult under the best of circumstances, let alone in this Presidential election year. The deficits we currently face are unacceptable. The budget crafted by the committee puts a priority on reducing them. We understand why the deficits are there: recession and war on terror. Through this budget plan we will cut those deficits in half over the next 3 years. At the same time, the budget blueprint that we debate from the committee remains committed to certain priorities. The budget blueprint assumes spending for our national security will increase over $20 billion next year. That is an increase of about 5.1 percent. It assumes funding for domestic, or our homeland security, will increase by 15 percent. Both of these increases are essential in our war on terrorism. Important domestic programs are not ignored. We all know a key to job growth in the future is one that gives a high priority to education, to retraining, to learning in schools, the basics of mathematics, writing, and verbal skills. Chairman Greenspan recently testified: By far the greatest contribution during the past century to our average annual real GDP increase of 3\1/4\ percent has been the ideas embodied in both our human and physical capital. Technological advance is continually altering the shape, nature and complexity of our economic processes. Yes, education has always been, and will continue to be, the key to our country's economic future, and the blueprint assumes we will increase funding for disadvantaged children for title I grants to local education agencies by over 8 percent, up over $1 billion next year, bringing the total Federal funding for this program to $4.6 billion. This program is the single largest Federal funding source for the No Child Left Behind legislation. The resolution also makes room for increased funding for special education, or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This increased funding for special education assumes to go up by $1 billion, and that is the fourth consecutive year of $1 billion increases, bringing funding for this special education program next year to over $11.1 billion. The resolution allows for a 5-percent increase in veterans medical care funding, up $1.4 billion, to a total of nearly $30 billion for these important programs next year. The resolution also assumes moneys for critical international assistance programs, a 13.5-percent increase in discretionary funding in this area, including last year's newly authorized Millennium Challenge Corporation. Full funding for the HIV/AIDS initiative of $2.8 billion next year is assumed in the blueprint, putting us on the path to meet our goal of $15 billion over 5 years. In closing, these are a few of the priorities embodied in this blueprint. It does not please everyone. How could it? There is no guarantee that all of the assumptions in the blueprint will be fulfilled as we move on to the funding legislation that will implement this blueprint. The demands are great. The resources at this point in time are limited. Just like a family making difficult and unpopular challenging decisions, we, too, will not be able to provide all of the funds some think are needed for particular programs or needed projects. I believe it is a solid, strong budget plan, presented to us by the chairman and the committee and it is one that deserves our strong support.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on Thursday, March 4, 2004, Senator Saxby Chambliss reached his 100th hour of presiding over the U.S. Senate. As a presiding officer, his dedication and dependability are to be commended. It is with sincere appreciation that I announce Senator Chambliss as the most recent recipient of the Golden Gavel Award for the 108th Congress.