Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I object to further proceedings on the measure at this time in order to place the joint resolution on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV.

Mr. FRIST. I understand there is a joint resolution at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that Executive Calendar Nos. 697 and 698 be rereferred to the Finance Committee and referred to the Banking Committee. I further ask unanimous consent that when the nominations are reported by the Banking Committee, they be automatically discharged from the Finance Committee and placed on the Executive Calendar. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that this agreement be specific to these nominations only.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that five bills are at the desk. I ask unanimous consent that they be read for the first time en bloc.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2634, introduced earlier today by Senators Dodd, DeWine, Reed, Smith, Reid, Daschle, and others.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for consideration of the following nominations on the Executive Calendar: Military nominations reported by the Armed Services Committee during today's session. 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 resume legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to update everybody as to where we are with respect to the Class Action Fairness Act. From the many statements over the course of today and last night, it is clear that this bill is important to the American people, and it is important to the economy. It is a bill about equity and it is a bill about fairness. Earlier today, I attempted to reach an agreement that would allow an orderly process to consider the bill. The agreement respected Members' rights to offer amendments, but also represented a commitment to focus on the issue--class action reform--and eventually proceed toward a final agreement with the House through the regular conference process. That is all we asked with no restrictions as long as we stayed on the bill, amendments on the bill, and once we passed it in the Senate, it would go to a conference with the House. The important point is at the end of the day--and this is where we stand tonight--by the end of this week we need to pass this bill and do what is right for the American people to create a public law. Unfortunately, we were unable to get this agreement. There was an offer from the other side which did not necessarily allow completion of this measure, and that offer included five nongermane amendments, the subject matter of these amendments simply being unknown. These nongermane amendments are totally unrelated to class action reform. They could be controversial in nature, and I can tell my colleagues, sharing with my colleagues which amendments they might be, indeed they are very controversial in nature and would require extended debate. That is not the way to complete action on this bill. With that said, I am prepared to file cloture this evening on the bill. I do so continuing to hope we can consider relevant amendments to the bill while the motion ripens. If colleagues do have relevant class action amendments they want considered, I encourage them to come forward and discuss them with the managers and let us work out a process to dispose of them. Cloture Motion

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I now send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of my colleagues, this vote will occur on Friday unless it is vitiated by some other agreement, and we will remain in discussion and willing to vitiate it if agreement can be reached. We will be on the bill throughout tomorrow's session. Again, I hope we will be able to dispose of class action amendments during that period.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the purpose of the unanimous consent request is simply to address the issue of class action reform, a bipartisan bill that does have support--not overwhelming but more than 60 votes of support on the floor of the Senate, but to do it in such a way that we can consider one amendment at a time--a relevant amendment on class action with the objective of taking this bill on class action, which we absolutely know will have an impact across this great country, in a positive way that addresses fairness and equity and improves the economy indirectly, but in a fairly great way creates jobs--to stay on it and be focused on it. I have offered 5 amendments on either side and then 10 amendments on either side, both with minimum wage. I would be happy to propound a request without minimum wage, if that would accommodate people. I will keep it in for now. I will propound one more request to drive home the point that we want to stay on class action with relevant amendments that can improve or modify the bill. Right now, I am not requesting any limitation on the debate. We can stay on it and consider each one. That is up to the managers. Let's have the relevant amendments come through, but let's have an unlimited number of relevant amendments on class action and finish this and get it to conference and also include minimum wage. Therefore, I ask the other side if they would be agreeable to an agreement allowing for unlimited--unlimited--relevant amendments, in addition to the minimum wage issue, and an agreement to go to conference.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, to clarify--because I know the unanimous consent request was long--what was objected to were five relevant amendments on our side, five relevant amendments on the other side, plus addressing the minimum wage issue on both sides, plus going to conference. In light of that objection, I will modify the unanimous consent request to allow for 10 relevant amendments on our side and 10 relevant amendments on the other side, again, in addition to the minimum wage issue.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we are on the Class Action Fairness Act of 2004. Smart progrowth fiscal policy is helping lead job creation in the Nation, and I am optimistic we will continue to see the improvement we have seen over the last 6 months of last year. Economic reports show the economy is continuing to experience growth but not in a manner that would create an unsustainable boom/bust-type scenario. Indeed, employment growth has been positive for the 10th straight month with that report from June. In fact, 1.2 million jobs have been created since the 1st of the year and almost 1.5 million jobs since a year ago. As we all know from recent reports, consumer confidence is high. Last Tuesday the conference board reported the largest monthly gain in consumer confidence in years. Confidence has not been this high in over 2 years. In spite of all this positive economic growth and job creation, there are structural problems this body needs to address if we are to make sure our Nation remains competitive in the global economy. One of those critical areas is the bill we are considering today. The focus of that bill is class action reform. Over the last decade, class action lawsuits have grown exponentially. One recent survey found State court class action filings skyrocketed by 1,315 percent over the last 10 years. The result of this glut of claims is to clog State courts, to waste taxpayer dollars, to inhibit the innovation and entrepreneurship that is so crucial to job creation in this country. Often all the purported victims ever get in this sordid process is a little coupon. That is one example. There are numerous examples we heard on the floor last night and yesterday. We have heard it in the past as we brought this to the floor. In Alabama, the court approved a class action settlement against a bank on the grounds they overcharged their clients. The settlement granted $8 million in fees to the plaintiffs' attorneys, but awarded only $8.76 to each plaintiff. Worse, the settlement deducted up to $100 from many of those plaintiffs' accounts to pay for the attorney fees, leaving some plaintiffs with over a $90 dollar loss versus the $8 million in fees to the plaintiffs' attorney. We have had numerous examples that have been brought to the floor. It is not only large business; it is small business as well. Why do the small businesses get dragged into all of this? In order to avoid going to Federal court, the class action legal team in many cases will rope in a number of small local businesses as codefendants to get the case decided in a favorable county or favorable State. Once that window during which the real class action target can remove the case to the Federal court closes, that unlucky mom-and-pop small business that happened to be in the wrong town at the wrong time is dropped from the case, but not until they have spent considerable money defending themselves. These frivolous lawsuits are hurting the economy. They are hurting taxpayers. They are hurting the justice system, and they are hurting the practice of the law. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2004 is a remedy to this problem. For the sake of our Nation's economy and faith in our system of justice, I do encourage my colleagues to act in a bipartisan nature and pass commonsense, meaningful class action reform. As I mentioned this morning and yesterday, I want the debate to be fair and full on this bill. Over the last week a whole slew of unrelated, nongermane amendments have been brought forward. It has been written about. People have called the floor saying they want the opportunity to offer an amendment which has absolutely nothing to do with class action reform. We only have about 33 legislative days left. We have the appropriations bills to do and a whole range of issues to address. That is why when we take up a bill such as class action, we need to stay on that particular bill and handle relevant amendments and debate them in a fair and timely way. Relevant amendments can improve the underlying bill. I want this full and fair debate to occur, to achieve this goal, and to have the appropriate management tool by which we can consider the relevant amendments. I will be offering a unanimous consent request at this time. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, with respect to the pending class action bill, there be five relevant amendments to be offered by each leader or his designee; provided further, that they be subject to relevant second-degree amendments. I further ask that, in addition to the relevant amendments, it be in order for each leader or his designee to offer an amendment related to minimum wage, again subject to relevant second degrees; provided further, that following the disposition of the amendments, the bill be read the third time and H.R. 1115, the House companion measure, then be discharged from the Judiciary Committee and the Senate proceed to its consideration, all after the enacting clause be stricken and the text of S. 2062, as amended, if amended, be inserted in lieu thereof; provided further, that the bill be read the third time, and the Senate then proceed to vote on passage of the bill, with no intervening action or debate. Finally, I ask that the Senate then insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am sure the managers will shortly be aware of that. It is important that people are heard on a very important bill. We began the bill late yesterday, and we need to have a very productive day today and possibly into tonight to continue progress on the bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will conduct a period of morning business for up to 60 minutes. Following morning business, we will resume consideration of the class action fairness bill. Last night we had a series of opening statements, and therefore today we hope to make progress on that bill. As I mentioned yesterday, the issue surrounding class action has been thoroughly debated before the Senate. This bill has bipartisan support. I continue to hope we can reach an agreement to consider relevant amendments to the underlying legislation. I believe we should debate and vote on any class action amendments and allow the Senate to ultimately vote on passage of the legislation after a fair time for consideration. Having said that, I am concerned about all the reports in the various periodicals with regard to this bill being used as fly paper, as a vehicle to carry all kinds of unrelated issues. I just simply hope that will not be the case and that we can stay on the bill with relevant amendments. The legislation is too important to become mired down in a myriad of completely unrelated issues. Therefore, I believe in order for the Senate to pass the class action bill, we should reach an agreement as to how best to proceed. It is not my intent to cut off any Member's right to offer amendments; however, I do believe we should be clear that the amendments will be related to the underlying bill. I will continue to talk to the other side to find a path by which we can complete this bill, and I will have more to say on the schedule following the period of morning business.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the nomination of David M. Stone, PN1526, be referred to the Commerce Committee for a period not to exceed 30 calendar days. I further ask unanimous consent that if the nomination is not reported after that period, it be automatically discharged and placed on the calendar.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that S.J. Res. 40 is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I now ask for its second reading, and in order to place the joint resolution on the calendar under provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceedings on this matter.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 599, H.R. 218.