Bill Frist

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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 concurrent resolution be agreed to, that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statement relating to the resolution 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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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. 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. Mr. President, I understand their policy luncheon is tomorrow, and clearly we will make every consideration for them to continue with that. We will schedule the votes--it depends on how each of these cloture votes go--after discussion over the course of the morning. Again, the first rollcall vote will begin at approximately noon tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow morning, following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Internet tax bill. There will be up to 1 hour of debate prior to the cloture vote on the Daschle amendment on renewable fuels. If all time is used, the cloture vote on the Daschle amendment will occur at approximately 12 tomorrow, and that will be the first rollcall vote of the day. If cloture is not invoked on the Daschle amendment, the Senate will immediately proceed to a cloture vote on Domenici amendment No. 3051 on energy policy. If cloture fails on the Domenici amendment, the Senate will proceed to a cloture vote on the pending McCain substitute. Therefore, up to three rollcall votes are possible beginning at 12 tomorrow. It is my hope we will be able to make progress on the bill tomorrow. If we are able to invoke cloture, we would move forward with Internet- tax-related amendments. Senators should therefore anticipate additional votes during tomorrow's session.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 340 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 29. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, and following the time for the two leaders the Senate then begin a period of morning business for up to 90 minutes, with the first 30 minutes of the time under the control of the Democratic leader or his designee, the second 30 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and the final 30 minutes equally divided between the assistant majority leader and Senator Feinstein; provided that following that 90-minute period the Senate resume consideration of S. 150, the Internet tax bill; provided further that there then be up to 1 hour of debate only equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. I further ask consent that following the use or yielding back of the time, the Senate proceed to the cloture vote on Daschle amendment No. 3050.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 342, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 168 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 255 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, very briefly, I know we are in morning business and we are on other topics, but so our colleagues will know, we are coming back to the FSC/ETI bill. We have a general agreement and a framework. We are coming back to it. That was really the purpose of my comments today. We are coming back to it next week. I hope we can work together. The American people deserve it. I do not believe either side will have 30 or 40 or 50 amendments. I think we can do it if we start right now to put our heads together. The managers are working. They have, I believe, an excellent glidepath to finish it as we go forward. I appeal, in a strong, bipartisan way--we are going to have to have a bipartisan approach to finish that bill--that we do just that next week. The American people deserve it. Regardless of how we get there, next week we have this opportunity to address it. We absolutely must do that.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this week our colleague, Senator John Kerry, is traveling to the Midwest to discuss ways to help boost job creation. While I applaud his intention on this issue, I also want to make certain Senator Kerry is aware we have scheduled a third floor debate on the JOBS bill--that is the very important bill on manufacturing in this country, S. 1637--to start next week. That important bill seeks to protect more than a million high-quality manufacturing jobs in the United States. Unfortunately, Senator Kerry's Democrat colleagues in the Senate are waging a filibuster against this jumpstart our business strength bill, the JOBS bill, having twice voted to prevent us from completing action on this essential manufacturing legislation. I do ask Senator Kerry to use his new position as his party's presumptive nominee, but in all likelihood the nominee, to help convince his colleagues to abandon this filibuster and move this legislation quickly toward passage. According to the National Foreign Trade Council, there are currently 147,200 jobs in Ohio that hinge on passage of this JOBS bill; in Michigan, some 150,000 jobs will be impacted by this ill-advised filibuster; and in Pennsylvania, nearly 142,000 jobs are tied to this legislation. We must repeal these European tariffs on at least 100 U.S.-made products. People say: What sort of products? They include safety glass. They include portable handheld tools. They include marine engines. They include aluminum wire, steel wire. They include printing paper. This Euro tax started at $200 million in March. It increased to $240 million in April. It will increase again to $280 million this Saturday and will continue to climb upward to $680 million next year if we fail to act. Senator Kerry was a cosponsor of this bill and supported it in the Finance Committee. I urge him to join us in a bipartisan effort to end his fellow Democrats' filibuster and agree to a time to pass and send to President Bush a jobs bill, a jobs bill that will benefit manufacturing workers throughout the United States. We must pass this JOBS bill to protect America's manufacturing base and the manufacturing jobs of thousands of our workers across the United States. America's workers are depending on us. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter from me to Senator Kerry dated April 28, 2004, be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in order to place the bill on the calendar under provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceedings.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, we will have a period of morning business for up to 60 minutes. The first 30 minutes of that time will be under the control of the Democratic leader, and the second 30 minutes will be controlled by this side of the aisle. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 150, a bill relating to the taxation of Internet access. Last night, the Senate invoked cloture on the motion to proceed by a vote of 74 to 11. Under the agreement reached following that vote, there will be an additional 2 hours 40 minutes remaining for debate on the motion. Following that debate, the motion will be agreed to, and the Senate will begin consideration of the Internet tax legislation. No vote will be necessary on proceeding. However, votes are expected today in relation to amendments that may be offered to the underlying bill. I stated yesterday that it is my desire to consider the Internet access tax bill over the course of the next few days and to complete the bill prior to the end of the week. Hopefully, we can make progress today. Senators are encouraged to notify the managers of the bill if they intend to offer amendments to the bill. I also remind my colleagues that the Senate will recess from 12:45 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. today for the weekly policy lunches. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am disappointed to have to come to the Senate floor and file these cloture motions at this time. Earlier today, I had hoped we would finally make progress on the pending Internet tax access bill. Last week, I said we would be addressing the Internet tax access bill Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which I and most people felt would be sufficient time to address this bill and allow for amendments to be debated and discussed. We did debate and vote on a relevant amendment offered by Senator Hutchison today. However, at the very first opportunity to offer an amendment from the other side of the aisle, they offered a completely nongermane amendment, which clearly is going to slow down this legislation. On Thursday, these cloture motions will be voted on. There will be two cloture votes with respect to the energy amendments, but ultimately we will have a third cloture vote and that vote will be on the underlying substitute relating to the Internet access bill. That is the vote that will determine if we will be going forward on this bill at that time. Again, I scheduled this measure with the hope of taking a few days and allowing Senators to have that opportunity to bring their amendments to the Senate floor to debate and vote on those amendments. I hoped those amendments would be centering on the Internet tax bill, the bill under consideration. The latest turn of events today means that many Senators who have legitimate and relevant amendments are being denied the opportunity to debate and vote on their amendments. This is unfortunate. That said, I remain committed to finishing the bill in a timely fashion, and I hope that we can get back together tomorrow morning and make appropriate plans in order to accomplish that over the course of the next several days.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do hope we will be able to complete the Internet access bill and that we can work through the turn of events of today. Again, I hope over the course of the evening people will come back and lay out a plan to accomplish what is important to the technology community and the communications community broadly, and that is to be able to allow people to vote on the very important underlying bill.

Mr. FRIST

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