Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of both of my colleagues. Both reflect we want this bill completed. It is an important bill that will take bipartisan cooperation to finish. I restate that we have spent 12 days on this bill. The purpose of the cloture motion is to allow us to continue to debate, to continue to amend, but to bring closure to a process that has gone on 12 days, that has included 20 individual amendments that have been adopted in the Senate, 11 of those amendments by voice vote and 9 disposed of by rollcall votes. Of the 20 amendments, 8 were Democrat amendments, 8 were Republican amendments, and 4 were from the Finance Committee, 1 of those being the substitute amendment. The new substitute, in itself, had 64 amendments that had been requested by Members of the Senate. We have voted on amendments that meant a lot to the Democrats, including Senator Harkin's amendment on the Department of Labor overtime regulations and Senator Wyden's amendment on the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. We made huge progress. Now is the time to give definition to closure where we will still debate the germane amendments and have that debate and vote. I want to give adequate time, but I plead to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to understand we have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that I hoped we would do on Monday, an important bill that affects about 4 to 5 million Americans that we must get to, that we will bring to the Senate. We have unanimous consent to deal with it once we get it to the Senate, but I cannot get it to the Senate as long as we are debating amendments. All of the amendments have substance to them, but we need to take a bill and concentrate on the amendments that are germane to that bill, and then we move to the next bill. I have the Individuals with Disability Education Act; I have bioshield. Right now bioterrorism is an existential threat which affects all of us. There is an important bill called bioshield that I need to bring to the Senate to address the safety and welfare of this Nation. We have the Department of Defense authorization that I have to go to in about 8 days. Again, we are trying to do the Nation's business. We are fighting a war right now that is affecting this Nation and the entire world. It is our responsibility to be able to address and give that adequate time in the Senate. Again, this bill we are on, FSC/ETI, is as important as any, but we need to stay on it in a focused way. The managers have done a great job to date. We are giving further definition to it by hopefully invoking cloture. We have seven ambassadors to bring to the Senate to be confirmed. We have 33 judges. Under the current system, we bring a judge, have a rollcall vote on each judge. I am having a difficult time getting judges to the Senate floor. Thirty-three judges are waiting to be confirmed by action of this body. I say that because--and I know my colleagues know this--we have a lot to do in a very short period of time. Thus, we have to use our time in the Senate as efficiently as possible and consider those amendments which are appropriate and germane to the bill under consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk and due for a second reading. I ask unanimous consent that the clerk read the titles of the bills for a second time en bloc.

Mr. FRIST

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 that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 488, S. 2264.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 489, S. Con. Res. 100.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution and preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record, with no intervening action.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 493, S. 2292.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on May 7, 2004, at 11:45 a.m., in open session, to receive testimony on allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will turn to business. I ask morning business be closed.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this Sunday a lot of families will be celebrating a very special day, a day of joy, a day of thankfulness, and for some a day of sadness due to the fact that their loved ones, their mothers, have passed. Restaurants are going to be packed for Sunday brunch. Living rooms are going to be full of fidgety children. Families are going to recall teasing stories, all to tell their moms that they love them. Mother's Day is the busiest long-distance calling day of the year. It accounts for more than one-fifth of all of the floral purchases made for the holidays. I am looking forward to our own holiday with our family, going to church, celebrating Mother's Day with our immediate family, and then later in the day joining an extended family and some old friends for another Mother's Day dinner. Celebrating moms is a tradition that stretches back millennia. Ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mythological mother of gods. Ancient Romans celebrated their mother goddess symbol, Cybele, and in the British Isles and Celtic Europe, the people honored the goddess, Brigid, and later her successor, St. Brigid, in a spring tradition of motherhood. Mother's Day in America got its start in West Virginia in 1858, led by the indefatigable Anna Reeves Jarvis, a local schoolteacher. After years of petitioning, Mother's Day finally became an official American holiday in 1914, and it was passed in the Congress as a joint resolution and signed by President Woodrow Wilson. Today, 90 years later, Mother's Day is celebrated all over the world, not just in the United States--in Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Belgium. Abraham Lincoln said of his mom: All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. It is a sentiment that is shared by the humble and by the lofty, throughout the ages and across the continents. Human nature binds us to our mothers. The Bible instructs us to respect and obey our mothers, and in turn mothers give us that gift that there is no way to return, that ultimate gift, the gift of life. I close on this tribute to Mother's Day and all the mothers who are listening and to all the families who have lost their mothers with a quote by the basketball legend Karim Abdul-Jabar. I think it speaks to how we all remember our moms--looking after us, taking care of all the little details, reminding us of the things we would miss as we are growing up, understanding all our unique attributes we might have, as we think of that basketball legend. Karim said: My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra 50 cents the adults had to pay. Yes, it is the moms who were thinking about what we never necessarily thought of, looking at each of us as those very special instruments of life. So happy Mother's Day to all the mothers around the world and to my mom, who died 6 years ago. I miss her very much. To my wife Karyn's mom, Kathryn McLaughlin in Ft Worth, TX, happy Mother's Day; and of course most especially to my wife Karyn, who is the rock of our family, who keeps it all together.

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 ask unanimous consent that the committee substitute amendment be adopted, the bill, as amended, be read a 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 now proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar No. 492, S. 2092.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 349, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Con. Res. 102 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent 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. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 348 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, 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. 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. FRIST. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that following morning business today the Senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of Calendar No. 685, the nomination of John Negroponte to be Ambassador to Iraq.

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.