Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

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

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 581, 585, and 597. 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 return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 298, 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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will be in a period of morning business for up to 60 minutes, with the first half under Republican control and the second half under Democratic control. Following morning business, at approximately 11 a.m., the Senate will begin consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 3108, the pension reform bill. Under an agreement reached last night, there will be up to 4 hours of debate on the conference report prior to a vote on its adoption. If all time is used, that vote will occur at approximately 3 p.m. today. The vote on the conference report will be the first vote of the day. Following the disposition of the pension reform conference report, the Senate will resume consideration of the JOBS bill, the FSC/ETI bill. We have been working with the Democratic leadership to lock in a final list of amendments to the bill. We will be continuing that effort over the course of this morning. I have related repeatedly on the floor of the Senate the importance of this bill, the importance of finishing this bill. I do hope Members on both sides of the aisle will show restraint as we put together a number of amendments to be considered on the FSC/ETI bill. I yield the floor.

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.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the pending first-degree amendment to the motion to recommit be withdrawn; I further ask unanimous consent that the motion to recommit be agreed to, and the substitute amendment then be agreed to and be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment. I further ask unanimous consent that when the Senate returns to the bill Senator Harkin or his designee be recognized in order to offer his amendment relating to overtime. I further ask unanimous consent that the following list of amendments that I send to the desk be the only remaining first-degree amendments to the bill; provided further that they be subject to the second degrees which are to be relevant to the amendment to which they are offered. I finally ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of the amendments the bill be read the third time and the Senate proceed to a vote on passage of the bill with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of colleagues, in terms of the schedule, we will not be in session tomorrow. There will be no further rollcall votes today. We still have some business to do, which I will comment on shortly. On the Monday after recess, we will have no rollcall votes on that day. I will come back and announce the specifics of the schedule later today or tonight. We are making real progress on establishing the universe of amendments for the FSC/ETI bill. We will continue to work. We have made real progress over the course of the day in the area of this important bill. We have a number of issues to address over the course of the afternoon. Again, there will be no rollcall votes tomorrow. We will not be in session tomorrow. We will have no rollcall votes on the first day back after the recess.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in response, through the Chair, we will have no more rollcall votes tonight. Assuming we will be able to reach an agreement on a finite list on the FSC/ETI bill, I would expect we would not have votes on Friday of this week either. Again, I thank our colleague from Florida. That will be the last interruption, I promise.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I wanted to take a couple moments and update my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as to where we plan on going on a very important bill, the jobs in manufacturing bill that is before us. The bill itself, first and foremost, is a critically important bill. We have used the almost mnemonic JOBS bill, but it really does affect workers, manufacturing, employment and, thus, it is critical. From talking to the Democratic leadership and our leadership and the chairman and ranking member, we all agree we need to do everything possible to complete this legislation in a timely way because it is important to the American people. We have a bill that passed out of the Finance Committee 19 to 2 which, by definition, means it enjoyed broad and bipartisan support. Now we have had two cloture votes that have failed. Both of those cloture votes are signals to stop, to obstruct the bill. Yet in our conversations, everybody agrees we need to do everything possible-- today, tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night--to complete this bill. First and foremost, it is an important bill. From a procedural standpoint and from what we do over the next hour or so, we are working hard to complete the list of amendments we will be addressing. We will hopefully be able to lock in that list at some point in time so we will have a pathway for completion of the legislation. Thirdly, there is a particular amendment, the Harkin amendment on overtime, on which I have been clear. Once we have a plan to address all the potential scores of amendments in a reasonable way--hopefully staying on amendments that directly impact the content of the bill itself, that are germane, although the interpretation of germaneness varies on this floor--the overtime amendment will be considered and the Harkin amendment will be considered and voted upon. But what we ask is for a list of amendments and a glide path to completion of the bill. Let people vote up or down, yes or no, for or against the bill so that we can bring it to resolution. First, this bill is important to workers. It is important to our economy. Second, we are completing how we can put together a glide path to finish the legislation. Third, there is the overtime vote and a companion vote that will be side-by-side votes that will take place on the overtime issue. We continue to work hard. I withdraw the pending motion to proceed.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today, we will be voting on a cloture motion to allow the Senate to proceed to debate S. 2207, the Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act of 2004. I strongly urge my colleagues to vote for the motion to proceed. It should be clear to all those following this debate that our medical litigation system is failing the American people. It is failing our communities, our hospitals, our doctors, our families and, most importantly, our patients. Unfortunately, this system hurts our most vulnerable patients the most--those needing help from highly trained medical specialists like neurosurgeons and obstetricians. Reform of this broken system is desperately needed, and we must act. The upcoming vote will allow us to fully debate this critical issue. If Members have problems with certain parts of the bill that is fine. Let's move to the bill, offer amendments, and fully debate this needed reform. But if action is delayed, we know what will happen: patients will suffer, women will suffer and babies will suffer. Those seeking care from emergency rooms and trauma centers will suffer. OB/GYNs will continue to flee their practices and drop obstetrical services, and more doctors will refuse to perform vitally needed emergency services. I remind my colleagues that our current litigation system does more than simply threaten access to care. It indirectly costs the country billions of dollars every year in defensive medicine. The fear of lawsuits forces doctors to practice defensive medicine by ordering unneeded extra tests and procedures. Though the numbers are hard to calculate, well-researched reports predict savings from reform at tens of billions of dollars per year. It directly costs the taxpayers billions. The CBO has estimated that reasonable broad reform will save the Federal Government $14.9 billion over 10 years through savings in Medicare and Medicaid. It impedes efforts to improve patient safety. The threat of excessive litigation discourages doctors from discussing medical errors in ways that could dramatically improve health care and save hundreds or thousands of lives. I am a strong supporter of patient safety legislation which I hope we will pass this year. In addition to patient safety legislation, we need to address the underlying problem, our liability system. We must reform this broken liability system. That is why I strongly support the Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act. I thank my colleague Senator Gregg, who has skillfully led this debate, and I thank Senator Ensign, a leading proponent of reform, who has seen the current crisis in his own State of Nevada. This legislation will protect access to care for our most vulnerable citizens and ensure that those who are negligently injured receive fair and just compensation. Again, I encourage my colleagues to move this legislation forward. We cannot afford further delay.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I mentioned earlier that we do want our colleagues to have a full 60 minutes for morning business. So at this juncture, I ask unanimous consent that the morning business period be extended for the full 60 minutes, with the time divided as under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. This morning, the Senate will conduct a period of morning business until 10:45 a.m. We may make some adjustments to that because we want a full hour of morning business. There will be some leader time used by myself and the Democratic leader. Morning business will be for an hour, with the first half under the control of the Democratic leader and the second half under the control of the majority leader. Following that 1 hour of morning business, the Senate will begin 2 hours for debate with respect to the motion to proceed to the Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act of 2004. Following the debate, the Senate will recess until 2:15 for the weekly policy luncheons to occur. When the Senate reconvenes at 2:15, there will be a vote on invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to the consideration of the Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act. This procedural vote will require 60 votes. Unfortunately, it became necessary due to objections from the other side of the aisle. Following that vote, the Senate will conduct a second cloture vote relating to the FSC/ETI, the JOBS bill. This will be the second cloture vote with respect to this JOBS bill, the FSC/ETI bill. I hope we will be successful in invoking cloture and bringing this FSC/ETI issue to conclusion. An issue we need to address this week is the pension equity conference report. That conference report has passed the House by a large margin, and it is now at the desk. We need to consider that measure prior to adjourning for the Easter recess. I will be talking to the Democratic leader after our statements this morning about reaching an agreement for a period of debate and a vote on the pension equity conference report. I will briefly comment on the JOBS bill, the FSC/ETI bill. The progrowth policies this Senate, this body has passed in 2001 and 2003 are policies which keep more money in the hands of individuals and businesses and out of the grasp of Government. These policies have begun to pay dividends, dividends we have seen over the last several months, realized in the improvement in the economy and in the job creation numbers, which have steadied and now begun to increase. The point is, we can, we should, and we will do more. Today, we have an opportunity to further enhance the creation of jobs which are so needed here at home, by taking positive action to move the JOBS bill-- that is, the Jumpstart Our Business Strength Act, the FSC/ETI bill-- through this whole maze of parliamentary obstacles that are currently handcuffing this bill. It is important for us to do. We absolutely must accomplish that this week. As most know, this bill brings together our trade and tax laws. It brings them in compliance with our trade agreements. It will also create tens of thousands of new jobs over the next several years. Given that much of the benefit of that legislation goes to U.S. manufacturing firms, these jobs are likely to be high-wage, high-skill jobs that are necessary to ensure strong economic growth. As many of my colleagues know, the Europeans are already imposing tariffs on our exports. The tariffs started last month, March 1, at 5 percent of the $4 billion authorized. They will increase 1 percent; that is, $40 million, each and every month that passes. The tariffs, in effect, are a European tax on U.S. manufacturers, and they are devastating U.S. businesses. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in the forest products industry alone, approximately 1,400 jobs are at risk due to these tariffs. It is time for us to act; it is causing real economic hardship. There is a company with operations in both Ohio and Wisconsin called Robbins Sports Surfaces. Jonathan Turner is their director of purchasing. He wrote an e-mail that summarizes why we need to act and to act now: The estimated average value per year for all items that the EU has sanctioned has been about $300,000.00 for my company. . . . Because competition is so fierce in these markets, any import duty will likely cost us that business to a European competitor. With the initial import duty, we cannot compete effectively in Europe at this time. We need to sell our products to the EU and are in favor of discontinuing this duty. For 10 years we have exported to the EU and are in danger of losing that market if FSC/ETI is not resolved. That is just one example--Jonathan Turner's words in an e-mail. A vote against cloture is a vote in support of this Euro tax, whether it is on Jonathan Turner or Robbins Sports Surfaces or thousands of other companies also facing these tariffs. So I do hope my colleagues will join me and others in voting in favor of cloture this afternoon so we can move forward on this important bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tomorrow morning, following morning business, the Senate will begin consideration of the conference report to accompany the pension reform bill. Under the unanimous consent agreement, there will be up to 4 hours for debate equally divided. Following the use or yielding back of time, the Senate will vote on the conference report. In addition to the pension reform conference report, the Senate may resume consideration of the FSC/ETI or JOBS bill.

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, following the remarks of Senators Stabenow and Dole.

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; that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record, without intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, my smile is because it was just yesterday about this time that the distinguished Presiding Officer and myself-- actually, it was a little earlier than this--were in the Chamber hoping this resolution would not ever make it to the floor, given the fact that our Lady Vols were about to play. This was about 24 hours ago. As the distinguished Senator from Connecticut said earlier today, it was a fantastic game, and to be able to watch last night two outstanding women's basketball teams compete in the very best spirit-- which is what sports is all about, which is what competition is all about, which is what hard work is all about--was a great thrill to us all.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. FRIST. I appreciate the reservation being made over there because it was going to come quickly over here.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 333, submitted earlier today by Senators Dodd and Lieberman.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 8. 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 for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period for morning business for up to 60 minutes, with the first 30 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee, and the second 30 minutes under the control of the Democratic leader or his designee; provided that following morning business, the Senate begin consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 3108, the pension reform bill, as provided under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce with my colleague, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Hatch, a bill relating to an issue I talked a lot on the floor about this morning and yesterday, and that is the issue of asbestos litigation reform. This is an issue I have taken great pain to outline over the last several weeks because it is an issue that has been addressed in committee. It is an issue we looked at, debated, talked about, and discussed in a bipartisan way since that point in time. It is now time to take some action to continue the progress that has been made today. It is on asbestos--an asbestos injury resolution act. Today, we introduce a substitute bill to S. 1125, which is the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act, which was reported out of the Judiciary Committee. I thank my colleague, Chairman Hatch, for getting S. 1125 through the Judiciary Committee last July where, among many other successes, he led a major bipartisan solution in committee on the linchpin criteria issue of the medical criteria. S. 1125, as reported out of committee, provided a solid, reasonable solution to the asbestos litigation crisis. It had numerous consensus-building changes all made at the request of people both on the committee, Democrats, and also representatives of organized labor. Since that time, there have been continued negotiations, and there have been more agreements in improving the bill as reported. Special thanks go to a whole number of people, including Senator Specter and Judge Edward Becker who have both greatly improved and addressed the many issues on the administrative side of this bill. I thank many Members. I thank the ranking minority member, Senator Leahy, and the efforts of my Democratic colleagues and many stakeholders who have contributed greatly to the underlying bill with discussions and negotiations since that point in time. All have been very involved in improving the legislation. I believe it is time--indeed, we are taking this action today--to further the effort of putting forward a constructive bill which addresses many of the concerns that people are talking about but now we will have it as a bill. To postpone this any longer, even though people keep coming forward and saying, I have another idea, I don't think will bring this to conclusion, and thus we introduce the bill today. To push toward a solution, we are providing a substitute bill even though we will not bring this bill to the floor until after the April recess. We, of course, welcome further discussions--myself, the chairman, and others--with regard to how we might further improve the bill. What has emerged from the collective efforts to date is a proposal that retains the key elements of the original S. 1125 and includes some of the crucial modifications that address concerns raised since its passage in committee by stakeholders. The goal is a bipartisan agreement. With the goal of a bipartisan agreement in mind, a couple of the additional improvements I should mention--improvements of the bill that is being introduced versus the original S. 1125. First, we provide more compensation to the victims. Second, we revise the funding provisions to help protect the solvency of the fund while ensuring that any risk of shortfall rests on defendants and insurers and not the claimants. Third, we incorporated a new administrative system agreed to by various stakeholders that is easier for claimants to use and can begin processing and paying claims more quickly. I mention these three only to highlight a few of the significant changes that we believe improve S. 1125 as reported--changes that were made in good faith to address the concerns raised by Democrats and that are aimed at ensuring the program established under S. 1125 was the most fair to the victims, the intended beneficiaries. S. 1125 represents an important piece of legislation. We must not forget the provisions of banning asbestos proposed by Senator Murray, revised and adopted by the Judiciary Committee. The ban on asbestos is necessary to ensure that the dangers associated with asbestos exposure can be eliminated. We also have a duty to our veterans, many of whom were exposed to substantial amounts of asbestos while serving our Nation during World War II and on ships, who have limited means of obtaining compensation for asbestos-related illnesses. The revised S. 1125--which will now be S. 2290--represents an easier and a faster avenue for the men and women of the armed services to receive fair and just compensation while still keeping intact their veterans benefits. Residents and workers of Libby, MT, also need this legislation to obtain full and adequate compensation. We must move forward on S. 2290. There no doubt will be constructive proposals from Senators on both sides of the aisle to further refine and improve this bill. By introducing this bill today, we encourage that process. It is my hope the process will be useful and not result in any further delays or in postponing us addressing this true crisis today. I believe a fair and a reasonable solution in a bill that can pass this body is possible. I believe this is another major step forward to accomplish that goal. In closing, I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee who has been instrumental from day 1 on this bill and who has worked closely with both sides of the aisle in developing this product we introduce today.

Mr. FRIST

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