Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 530 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the McCain amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 741, S. 2603.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4116, which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do want to say a word about H.R. 4116, a bill requiring the U.S. Mint to produce coins celebrating the recovery and restoration of America's greatest symbol; that is, the American bald eagle. The proceeds from these coin sales will be used to establish the American Eagle Fund, which is a special endowment to assure the ongoing care and protection of this symbol of our freedom. As many of our colleagues know, in 1782 our Nation's Founding Fathers established the bald eagle as the national emblem of the United States. Since that point in time, the bald eagle has represented the spirit of America: our liberty, our freedom, our democracy, and our strength. I mention consideration of this bill in part to give tribute to the extraordinary dedication and work of Al Cecere, who is president of the American Eagle Foundation, and his colleagues. The foundation is located in Pigeon Forge, TN. It is a remarkable foundation that cares for and studies and shares with the public several nonreleasable eagles at Dollywood's Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, which is a very large aviary there. Many Americans have seen this specific symbol as they watched the Foundation's most famous member, a beautiful bald eagle called Challenger, a truly majestic bird, because it makes regular appearances all over this country, at the U.S. Capitol and most of the major sporting events and other large indoor and outdoor gatherings throughout this country, all of which are celebrating the various aspects of American life. I want to pay tribute to my colleague, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, for his dedicated and diligent work of signing up 70 of our colleagues in support of the bill, and Senator Landrieu for being an original cosponsor of the Senate bill. I want to thank our House colleague, Bill Jenkins, for his extraordinary leadership on the issue. He took the lead there in signing up over 300 House cosponsors of the bill, assisted by several of his House colleagues, most particularly Congressman Harold Ford. Again, a majestic bird, a majestic symbol of so much of what we do on the floor of the Senate, was honored through this bill, the American Bald Eagle Recovery and National Emblem Commemorative Coin Recovery Act.

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged from further action on S. Con. Res. 151, and the Senate now proceed to its consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 4548, the intelligence reauthorization bill, provided that the conference report be adopted, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the conference report be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record, without intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2619, and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Energy Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2457 and the Senate proceed to its consideration in conjunction with Calendar No. 653, H.R. 3785, en bloc.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time, passed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution and the amendment to the preamble be considered and agreed to, the preamble, as amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statement relating to the resolution be printed in the Record, with the above occurring with no intervening action.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 387 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3818, which is at the desk.

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3034, introduced earlier today by Senator Pryor.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, without intervening action or debate, and any statement relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, so our colleagues will know the plans for the next few minutes or next hour or so, we will be going sine die later this evening. There is still some business we are conducting and wrapping up. For the next few minutes, we will have some unanimous consent requests. We will deal with that, after which I will make a statement or two while that pending business is being wrapped up.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on the calendar: Calendar Nos. 588 and 865. I further ask that the following nominations be discharged from the respective committees and they be considered en bloc: From the Foreign Relations Committee, PN-2052 and PN-2053, which are two lists of Foreign Service officers, for a total of 309 nominations; from the HELP Committee, PN-1675, Veronica Stidvent, Assistant Secretary of Labor; from the Energy Committee, PN-1839, Karen Harbert, Assistant Secretary of Energy; PN-1851, John Shaw, Assistant Secretary of Energy. I further ask consent that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as we approach this truly historic vote, I want to once again thank those who have labored so hard to get to this point over the last days, weeks, and literally months. Senators Collins and Lieberman, the chair and ranking member, deserve our highest praise--we oftentimes say that, but I mean it literally-- for their professionalism, dedication, persistence, and bipartisanship, which is something that we stressed up front from day one, when Senator Daschle and I first talked after the 9/11 Commission recommendations came. It has been there throughout. I say thank you. John McCain also stands out as someone who endeavored to give the 9/11 Commission life and to add many key elements to the Senate bill, many of which are in this legislation, all of which work toward the implementation of those 9/11 Commission recommendations. Senator Warner and Senator Stevens both labored to make sure we got the intelligence support to the military right, to make sure we did this in the correct way. Jon Kyl, part of our leadership team, worked hard on issues. I thank Pat Roberts for his diligent and persistent efforts. A whole host of Members on both sides of the aisle have participated. I want to mention Denny Hastert, who played a critical role in bringing this legislation to fruition, which played out before the American people over the last several weeks. We would not be here right now without the unflagging leadership of President Bush to fight the war on terror and to meet the greatest challenge of our time. His commitment has been steady. It has involved direct participation. He made it clear to me from day one that it is his highest priority to make America safer. This bill moves America into a position where we can say--once he signs the bill--that America will be safer. Lastly, I thank the 9/11 families, without whom much of the momentum simply would not have been there to see this bill all the way through. They inspired us, they turned their personal tragedies into action, and it is manifested in the bill. In the 3 years since the 9/11 attacks, we learned a lot about our Nation's vulnerabilities, our strengths, and the steps that we must take, many of which we are taking today in this bill. The bill will certainly make our Nation safer. Much more needs to be done, and we all recognize that; but this is a major leap forward. As I said earlier, strengthening America at home and abroad, moving America forward in the pursuit of freedom and prosperity, and protecting the American people in our homeland have been the driving motivations of the 108th Congress, and they are captured in this bill. Mr. President, I believe we are ready to proceed to a vote. At this juncture, I will yield back all time.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5363, which is at the desk.