Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the resolution and preamble be agreed to en bloc, and motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the HELP Committee be discharged from consideration of H.R. 1812, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. 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. Tomorrow, the Senate will resume consideration of the Energy bill. At 10 a.m. the Senate will proceed to the cloture vote on the bill. It is my hope and indeed my expectation that cloture will be invoked as we can move closer to passage. Following the cloture vote, we will continue working through amendments to the bill. Several amendments are currently pending, and a number of Senators filed amendments under the cloture deadline. I encourage Senators to show restraint in offering additional amendments. Again, we will complete action on this bill by the week's end.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, the next vote will be the last vote of tonight. In fact, the next vote will be the last vote before the cloture vote tomorrow morning. The Democratic leader and I have not talked specifically about times, but we probably will come back in at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning and have the cloture vote at 10 o'clock. As all of you know, the postcloture amendments will be germane amendments. Right now, the Parliamentarian is going through about 170 amendments to see what is germane and what is not. We make a request to our colleagues to talk to the managers tonight or very early on tomorrow about which amendments you feel strongly about offering. People have asked about the schedule. We have really all day tomorrow. We could go into Friday on the bill, but if people really focus on it tonight and in the morning, we have a good shot at completing this bill tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow evening. Again, it is going to take everybody coming together and sorting through the amendments. But this will be the last vote tonight, and the next vote will be the cloture vote at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST. I have a package of manager amendments that have been cleared on both sides of the aisle. I would now send them to the desk, and I ask unanimous consent that the amendments be considered and agreed to with the motion to reconsider laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to the cruelest and most unfair tax our Government imposes, the death tax. The death tax destroys small businesses, it damages families, and it prevents job creation. The death tax forbids hardworking people from passing on their assets to spouses, children, friends, and loved ones. It damages farms, newspapers, shops, and factories. Let me make my principles clear: Americans spend their lives paying taxes; death should not be a taxable event. A typical family spends between $30,000 and $150,000 simply planning to avoid this tax--$150,000, enough to start a business and create dozens of jobs--all of it wasted simply trying to avoid this unjust tax. The death tax is immoral. It needs to go. We have already begun to cut the death tax and current law will complete its phase-out in 2010. But, on January 1, 2011, the death tax will spring back to life. And, it will rise to confiscatory levels. That's why I have filed an amendment today that will abolish the death tax, immediately and forever, effective January 1, 2006. If we do not act, the death tax will come back to haunt our children's futures. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in ending the sway of this terrible tax once and for all.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning we will return to the Energy bill with the lineup of amendments that was agreed to last night. Under that order, Senator Feinstein will go first with her amendment relating to LNG. That will be considered under a 60-minute time limitation. Following that debate, Senator Byrd will offer an amendment related to rural gas prices. In addition to those amendments, we have several others who are prepared to offer amendments if time is available this morning. During this morning's debate, we will determine if we will vote after the discussion of each amendment or if we will stack a vote or two together. Senators should expect the first vote to occur prior to noon today. Also, last night, we reached an agreement to spend 3 hours for debate on the McCain-Lieberman amendment on climate change. We expect to resume that amendment around midday, around noon today. Finally, I remind everyone that cloture was filed last night on the underlying Energy bill, and thus that cloture vote would occur Thursday morning. We expect that cloture will be invoked, and we will be voting on final passage of the Energy bill before we close for the week. We will follow the Energy bill with most probably Interior appropriations. We plan on doing two appropriations bills before we leave for the recess. Also as a reminder to our colleagues, under rule XXII, first-degree amendments must be filed by 1 p.m. today. We will have a busy day today, likely go well into the evening. We will have votes over the course of the day as we bring the bill to a final vote hopefully tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Last night, we all listened to the statement of the assistant Democratic leader in which he addressed comments made a week ago that had equated our U.S. military actions in Guantanamo to Nazi death camps, Soviet gulags, and Pol Pot's killing fields. My colleagues and I had urged the Senator to issue a formal apology and to strike his remarks from the Record. We asked his fellow Democrats to denounce his remarks or at least to distance themselves from those remarks. Last night, he apologized. We appreciate that and we respect that. It was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do for this body and I believe for our troops overseas. Why? Because over the course of the day's proceeding of the apology, damage was being done. Intended or not, damage was being done. It was being done by giving voices at Al Jazeera more cause to gleefully repeat those charges around the world. We believe damage was being done to our men and women in uniform, not intended but the damage was being done. With our troops in harm's way all around the globe and in an era where information flashes literally in seconds from one side of the world to the other, we all must be careful about what we say and how we say it. If what we say is not intended, then we need to correct it early on. It is a lesson we all learn over and over again. I have certainly made my share of verbal mistakes and missteps over the years. So last night's statement from Senator Durbin both honored our troops and recognized the sacrifices of those who lived and died under the grim systems of Nazi terror, of Soviet repression, and Cambodian genocide. That is right, fine, and worthy. Senator Durbin took an honorable step yesterday afternoon. I look forward to working with our colleague from Illinois as we move forward in the days and weeks ahead. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period for morning business with Senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this June 19th marked the 140th anniversary of Juneteenth, the day our Nation finally ended the immoral and heinous institution of slavery. On June 19th, 1865, three years after President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, a quarter million slaves living in Texas learned that they were free from Union General Gordon Granger. He told the people of Texas: [T]hat in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, marked an end to a sad chapter in our Nation's history but it did not mark the end of racial prejudice in the United States. The horrors of Jim Crowe, lynching, and rampant discrimination still awaited those freed on Juneteenth. It would take 100 years almost to the day until Congress would finally put an end to political discrimination against African-Americans by passing the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act and completing the legislative program of the civil rights movement. Juneteenth marked the end of the struggle against slavery and the beginning of the long struggle for civil rights. For all Americans Juneteenth is a time to celebrate freedom: to reflect on it with picnics, concerts, festivals, seminars, and celebrations. It is a time of joy and a time to remember the achievements of African-Americans around our Nation. Juneteenth should also be a time to celebrate and remember the men and women who brought us freedom and equality: The brave Union soldiers who fought ``to make men free;'' the civil rights pioneers who began a struggle they would not see to its end; and the great, historic generation of civil rights leaders who helped America ``live out the true meaning of its creed'' and brought legal equality to all Americans. In commemoration of Juneteenth, I urge my colleagues to reflect on our freedom, acknowledge the legacy of slavery, and celebrate the achievements of the civil rights movement.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9 a.m. on Thursday, June 23. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate then resume consideration of H.R. 6, the Energy bill; provided that the time until 10 a.m. be equally divided between the chairman and the ranking member of the Energy Committee, or their designees; provided further that at 10 a.m. the Senate proceed to the cloture vote on the Energy bill. I further ask that notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the filing deadline for second-degree amendments occur at 9:45 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a moment we will return to consideration of the pending Energy legislation that we debated last week and this week and will complete later this week. We will resume debate on the amendment of Senator Martinez relating to the inventory of the OSC. The time agreement we reached last night provides for up to 80 minutes of debate before the vote on that amendment, although I do not believe all of that time will be necessary. We would like to begin that vote no later than 11 this morning. We request that Senators come promptly for that vote. We will be recessing at 11:30 to accommodate the weekly policy luncheons today. At 2:15, when the Senate returns from recess, we will continue through the amendments to the Energy bill. I believe the climate change amendments will be ready later this morning and for debate beginning at 2:15. We would expect votes on those amendments during today's session. I reiterate that it is my intention to file cloture on this bill later this evening. That would allow us to continue to consider and dispose of amendments, but it would also assure that we have a glide path to completion of the bill and that we would complete passage of the bill this week. The managers have done tremendous work over the last almost week and a half in moving the process along. I hope we can continue in that respect and finish the bill no later than Thursday or Friday of this week. Thus, we will be having a vote late this morning, and we will in all likelihood be voting on the climate change amendments later this afternoon. In addition, there will be the opportunity for people to come to the Senate floor and offer their amendments. Amendment No. 783

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be equally divided between both sides.

Mr. FRIST. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am happy to yield to the Senator from New Mexico.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, to clarify the comments that were going back and forth between the Senate Democratic leader and myself, we will finish the bill this week. We pay our respects to the Senator from New Mexico by saying he has been more than willing to be here to receive amendments. The fact that there were not a lot of people either on Thursday or today rushing to the floor to offer the amendments actually leads me to be very hopeful that we will complete this bill Thursday, although I know in all likelihood it is going to be Friday. We are down to just very few amendments. We recognize that some people will not be here over the course of even today, voting tonight, tomorrow, and the next day. That is not going to slow us down at all in our obligation to address the Nation's business. When there are amendments, we will take them to the Senate floor to debate them. I think we are discouraged a little by the fact that people are not rushing down to offer amendments. On the other hand, it kind of gives me a little bit of encouragement. It means we are going to finish this bill. We are going to file cloture Tuesday in order to finish it, in all likelihood, unless we come to some agreement by both the managers. I congratulate them for where we are today. We intend on finishing the bill with certainty this week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will resume consideration of the Energy bill, which we will complete this week. Chairman Domenici will be here to continue working through amendments. We made very good progress on the bill last week. We are on track to complete the bill later this week. As I announced at the end of last week, it may be necessary to file cloture on the bill tomorrow. If we file cloture tomorrow, the cloture vote would then occur on Thursday, which would allow us to complete the bill this week. I hope we do not have to file cloture, but I think it is important for people to realize we are going to finish the bill this week. People had the opportunity at the end of last week to offer amendments. They will have the same opportunity today and over the course of this week. I do ask our Senators to work with the bill managers to expedite consideration of their amendments early in the week. This evening, we will have a second cloture vote on the nomination of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. As announced earlier, the debate for that vote has been scheduled between 5 and 6. We plan on having that vote at 6 p.m. today. We have a very busy week as we move through the Bolton nomination and the Energy bill. I expect we will have votes every day this week, including Friday, as we wrap up work on the energy legislation; therefore, Senators should be prepared and should adjust their schedules accordingly to remain available until we complete passage of this important bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's executive calendar.

Mr. FRIST. Calendar 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk. I further ask unanimous consent that all of the mentioned nominations be confirmed en bloc, 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. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 174, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I would just like to add a real note of appreciation to an individual, Jackson Cox, who has spent much time focusing on this issue of Burmese democracy. The resolution sponsored by Senators McConnell and Feinstein is a resolution celebrating the tremendous struggle for freedom in Burma. Jackson Cox is someone for whom I have tremendous respect, who has focused on that initiative. I do want to recognize his tremendous work.