Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that at 11 a.m. on Monday, November 3, the Senate proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 3289, the Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental. I further ask that the time until 5 p.m. be equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the committee, with the minority time allocated as follows: Senator Byrd, 60 minutes; Senator Durbin, 30 minutes; Senator Kennedy, 30 minutes; Senator Dorgan, 15 minutes; Senator Dayton, 10 minutes; Senator Daschle, 30 minutes. I further ask unanimous consent that at 5 p.m. the conference report be adopted with the motion to reconsider laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just one final response. As I think our colleagues can see, we are working together in trying to move the schedule forward. I, too, am committed to the appropriations process. On foreign operations, I think we ought to work over the next hour and see if we can resolve the differences on the outstanding amendments. Indeed, my objective is to complete that bill as soon as possible. I will say, if we get to where we are really locked up, because Healthy Forests is important, the other issues are important, we are going to have to have some flexibility. But again, I think we ought to start working right now to resolve the outstanding amendments on foreign operations and try to finish it by midday today.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let's continue with the 30 minutes of morning business.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, and another unanimous consent request by my colleague from Kentucky, that we then proceed to the consideration of S. 139, as provided under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, first of all, let me make a couple comments about tonight's and tomorrow's schedule to make it clear. First of all, the understanding is 3 hours tonight on the climate change bill and then 2 hours in the morning. To put everything in perspective, because we are dealing with about four different issues now on the floor of the Senate--it has worked very well, and I appreciate the consideration and cooperation of everybody, because to some it might look confusing in terms of the order and the sequencing of what we are doing. We made huge progress today on the Healthy Forests legislation we have been working on now for the last 6 hours. The managers have done a superb job. We have traction. We have had a number of amendments, and we will continue on that later tomorrow. We will have no more votes tonight. We will move, as I just mentioned, to the climate change bill, with the 3 hours tonight, 2 hours tomorrow. Tomorrow we will have debate and then an early cloture vote on the Pickering nomination at about 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. We will then resume the climate change bill for 2 hours. Then we will return to the Healthy Forests legislation. Once we return to the Healthy Forests bill, I expect we will be able to finish that bill. Following that--Members can refer to the unanimous consent request by my colleague--the plan will be to return at that point in time to foreign operations that we will be able to complete at that juncture. That is the general layout of tonight and tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today there will be a period of morning business until 10 a.m. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Foreign Operations appropriations measure. Under the order from last night, Senator Dorgan will be recognized to offer an amendment relating to 9/11 in which there will be 40 minutes of debate. The procedural vote with respect to the Dorgan amendment is therefore expected at approximately 10:45 this morning. Following that vote, we will begin consideration of the Healthy Forests bill. Senator Cochran had hoped, and we tried on several occasions, to reach an understanding that the bill will be open for relevant amendments. We were unable to reach a formal agreement for that, but I do hope we will debate amendments that are related to Healthy Forests and the Healthy Forests initiative. We all recognize the tragedy and the suffering and misery that surrounds the wildfires currently raging in California. I do think it would be unfortunate and irresponsible in many ways for this to be delayed or not to stay on the issues related to the underlying bill. We will have votes throughout today as we make progress on that bill. There is a clear urgency to finish that bill this week. We will be looking also to execute the order with respect to the climate change bill. That agreement from July 31 allowed for 6 hours of debate. I will be working with principals on both sides of this bill in an effort to begin that debate during today's session. There are a number of other issues that we are currently working on, including the Internet tax, which has an expiration date surrounding the issue this Friday night. We continue to talk to the interested parties to bring that to some conclusion before Friday. We have the issue of gun liability. We are discussing on both sides of the aisle as to when we might address that--not this week but possibly the following week. On nominations, a cloture motion had been filed on the nomination of Charles Pickering to be a United States circuit judge for the Fifth Circuit. That vote will occur on Thursday. Again, we will be working in good faith to finish these measures. I thank everyone for their attention and cooperation in these matters. We do want to finish in a timely fashion and be able to leave for the recess period. There is a lot to accomplish. I think we are on track to do just that.

Mr. FRIST. We will certainly consider that and work very hard. As my colleagues know, we are adjusting the schedule and interrupting the appropriations bills quite appropriately to address this issue, which reflects the joint priority in responding in large part to the immediacy of that response to the fires that are underway. As I mentioned, the main obligation on both sides of the aisle is to address the issue of the climate change bill and the agreement from July 31. My intention is to stay on Healthy Forests and work aggressively. But we have to ask for cooperation on both sides of the aisle. I would like to finish Healthy Forests as soon as possible, absolutely finish it this week. It will take focus to stay on that bill and on relevant amendments as we have been requesting.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume consideration of the nomination of Michael Leavitt to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. There will be 1 hour of debate prior to the nomination. I am pleased this distinguished nominee for the President's Cabinet will receive an up-or-down vote and anticipate his confirmation by an overwhelming majority this morning. Following the disposition of the Leavitt nomination, the Senate will resume debate on the foreign operations appropriations bill. There are several amendments pending to the bill. We hope to begin scheduling votes on those amendments. Senator McConnell will be here following the nomination vote. We anticipate completing action on the bill during today's session. Therefore, Senators should expect rollcall votes throughout the day and possibly votes into the evening, if necessary. Each day I come to the floor I mention the schedule and the remaining business before the Senate. Again, I would like to reiterate that the days of this session are waning, but we have a full legislative agenda and executive matters to finish. We have the appropriations bills and the conference reports, Healthy Forests--and the tragic events in California underscore the need for this crucial legislation. Regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act, we are in discussions, and I hope an agreement can be reached on its consideration. If not, it will be necessary to take the procedural steps to ensure that the Senate does act on this very important piece of bipartisan legislation. We have the Internet tax moratorium. Discussions are underway on an agreement to allow us to act before the expiration of the existing law. On the climate change legislation, we have a 6-hour agreement. I hope we can possibly use less time than those 6 hours. We are looking for an available time to consider it this week. We have the judicial nominations as well. Again, I hope to make efficient use of the Senate's time over the coming days, and I hope and look forward to working with the Democratic leadership so we can consider these bills under time agreements and in a timely fashion. Everybody is aware of the scheduling challenges we have during this time of year. But with the cooperation of all Members, we will be able to finish our work and adjourn at the earliest possible time. As always, I thank our colleagues and Senators for their cooperation and energy and patience to accomplish this as we go forward.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it is widely expected that the Federal Reserve will vote later today to keep the short-term interest rates at the historically low level of 1 percent. This is good news for our economy and very good news for American households. Low interest rates are allowing consumers to cut their monthly payments, their debt payments, and to invest their hard-earned money in the American dream, and that is the ownership of a home. Indeed, sales of previously owned homes have hit their third highest level on record. Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors reported that previously owned home sales rose 3.6 percent to a record annual rate of 6.69 million units in the month of September. The realtor association's chief economist says the strong home sales are a result of ``the powerful fundamentals that are driving the housing market--household growth, low interest rates, and an improving economy.'' Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Commerce Department will release the data on third-quarter economic growth. Most observers expect the agency will report significant gains. Indeed, if the forecasters are right and the economy does show a 6-percent gain, this would be the fastest upward swing since 1999. Virtually every region of the country is benefiting from the recovery, as are a host of industries. You read it daily. Sara Lee saw its earnings rise 25 percent. Black and Decker's earnings are up 36 percent. Xerox profits climbed by 18 percent. Also revealing are ``first timer'' corporate profits. For example, Amazon.com reported a profit for the first time in a nonholiday period. Lucent Technologies is posting profits for the first time in 3 years. Corning and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, both broke a string of 10 quarter losses. All of this activity is helping to bolster the job market. The labor market added 57,000 new jobs last month after seven straight months of job cuts. Wages have gone up, on average, at nearly all income levels. Higher wages combined with lower debt payments and mortgage refinancing options are adding much needed juice to the economic engine. So I am optimistic about the direction of the economy as it continues on this road to recovery. Even the New York Times credits the Bush tax cut with higher consumer spending. In the Senate, we will continue to champion policies that work-- policies that return tax dollars to the taxpayer yet encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, and that promote even higher levels of jobs and growth. I ask unanimous consent that 60 minutes remain in order prior to the vote.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the Chair in response, it is our objective to adjourn as soon as we possibly can, completing the business before us. Thus, there is a very good possibility we will be able to finish our work that week. A lot of people do want to be back at home, and rightfully so, for Veterans Day itself. That Monday before Veterans Day we will have to have a productive day here if our goal is to finish that week. I do want to keep flexible. Right now, I ask the understanding of my colleagues because it very much depends on what happens over the next several days on the floor of the Senate. That is why we have to keep moving ahead with appropriations and see what happens with the supplemental in conference today, see the progress with the energy and medicare conferences. For right now, we need flexibility, but I think based on the comments the Democratic whip just made, as well as mine, if we have a chance of finishing that week, we can make that a very productive week. I know we will have a full hour before the vote. I just want to comment very briefly on another issue for 3 or 4 minutes.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will resume consideration of the Foreign Operations appropriations measure. Senator McConnell and the ranking member will be available to discuss and debate amendments. There is an expectation that this bill can be completed in short order. Therefore, if Members do intend to offer amendments, they should contact the cloakroom soon so they are not precluded by a unanimous consent agreement. As a reminder, at 5:30 p.m. today, the Senate will conduct a cloture vote with respect to the nomination of Michael Leavitt to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. That rollcall vote will be the first vote of today's session. I do anticipate we will be able to invoke cloture and, therefore, would like to complete this nomination procedure at some point tonight. For the remainder of the week, we will consider and complete the appropriations bills that are available. I will be discussing with Senator Stevens the remaining appropriations process. This week, we will also be addressing any appropriations conference reports that are made available. In addition to these bills, the Senate must still act on the fair credit reporting bill. I look forward to the first opportunity to bring that bill to the floor, most likely this week. The Internet tax moratorium legislation has been discussed as a possibility for this week. I do hope Members will be able to work out any differences on that bill. We will need to address this bill soon due to the existing expiration of that moratorium. Healthy Forests continues to remain a challenge. There had been an initial hope for an agreement to move forward on this bill with amendments that would be relevant. However, we have not been able to have an agreement reached on the relevancy of those amendments, and we will have to consider other options. The CARE Act is still sitting at the desk ready for conference, but, once again, there is an outstanding objection to that procedure. I mentioned at the end of last week and will mention again, the gun liability measure is one that should be considered before we close out this session. Again, we will be looking for time to do just that. As mentioned on the floor at the end of last week, we expect to be dealing with the appropriations bills for the most part over the course of the day and spending the early or very late afternoons and early evenings addressing these other very important measures. There may be exceptions to that as issues present themselves, but it will be important for us to continue a dual-tracking approach as agreed to on both sides of the aisle to address the important issues that must be addressed. As we know and will see later this afternoon and evening, nominations are critically important. They are always a focus. Tonight's vote shows the challenge we have on each and every one of these executive nominations, as well as all of the judicial nominations. I will continue to look for ways to give the executive nominations their due process--an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Again, this is with respect to both executive nominations and judicial nominations. The list I have just mentioned is lengthy in part, but it is within reason. We can complete these issues, and we will do our very best to complete all these issues, including the appropriations process, including the Energy conference report, including the Medicare prescription drug conference report, before we leave. It is going to require working together. It will require a lot of cooperation on both sides of the aisle to accomplish that. With that cooperation, with the expectation we can work hand in hand on these issues, we will be able to still adjourn in a timely way this year. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 239, designating National Native American Veterans Day.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the Senate's adjournment, the Committee on Finance be allowed to file bills and reports until the hour of 4 p.m. today.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I understand that S.J. Res. 21, introduced by Senator Kyl earlier today, is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Calendar No. 325, S. 1781, be referred to the appropriate committee.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following additional nominations on the Executive Calendar: Nos. 412 and 413. I 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. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Monday, October 27. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, 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 resume consideration of H.R. 2800, the Foreign Operations appropriations bill, until 2 p.m.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. As in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that at 2 p.m. on Monday, the Senate resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 405, Michael Leavitt, to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I further ask unanimous consent that the time until the scheduled cloture vote at 5:30 be divided with the chairman of the committee or his designee to control 1 hour and 15 minutes and the ranking member or designee in control of 2 hours and 15 minutes. I further ask unanimous consent that the final 20 minutes before the vote be equally divided with the last 10 minutes under the chairman's control.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, through the Chair, as we have discussed informally, it is our intention to address all of these issues and to do so and at the same time handle the tremendous challenge of addressing these appropriations bills will require us to, so called, dual track which in essence means take the necessary time on the appropriations bills each day, using that as the focus, but at the same time recognizing there is other very important business we will be doing over the course of that day. Generally we will try to do it in the evenings, but we can adjust that according to the schedules of the various managers. Madam President, it will take patience on both sides of the aisle, in part because of the amount of time it will require all of us to be on the Senate floor, but also from an organizational standpoint. The intention will be to try to keep things as organized as possible and focused on the appropriations bills. If it looks like any time can be spent more profitably on a dual track, we will do that. Generally, I would like to do appropriations bills through the morning and very late in the afternoon, and at that juncture be able to dual-track with these other issues.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, we will resume business on Monday afternoon. The two managers of the Foreign Operations appropriations bill will be here and available so that Members may come to the floor and offer amendments. As always, I encourage Senators to notify their respective cloakrooms if they intend to offer an amendment to this bill. At this time there are only a few amendments that have come forward that are known. Therefore, I hope the Senate will complete the bill by early next week. I do remind my colleagues the first vote of Monday's session will be at 5:30. Under the order, that vote will be on invoking cloture on the Leavitt nomination. I fully expect that cloture will be overwhelmingly invoked, and the Senate will then be able to have an up-or-down vote on the confirmation of this qualified candidate to the President's cabinet. We have provided time on Monday for Senators to speak prior to the vote. However, again, I hope once that vote is taken, we will be able to move quickly to a vote on the confirmation of Michael Leavitt. I want to also mention once again the very important issues that still need to be addressed prior to the adjournment of this session. There are a number of issues, including Healthy Forests, the Internet tax moratorium, the CARE Act, going to conference, gun liability--that is, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act--fair credit reporting, on which we reached consent to proceed yesterday. Hopefully this can be done quickly with no further delay. Obviously, we continue next week toward completing the appropriations process. I was encouraged with yesterday's pace on the Transportation-Treasury bill. With the cooperation of all Members, we were able to complete that bill over the course of the day. I hope we will be able to continue that trend and move expeditiously next week on the remaining bills. This week we also finally finished with congressional action on the partial-birth abortion ban. That bill will be presented to the President for his signature to become the law of the land. The Senate expedited passage this week of the anti-spam act. The 97 to zero passage on that vote shows the importance and the need for this legislation for which the American people have called.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, one thing I did not mention over the course of the week is the vote on the Class Action Fairness Act. Although I was very disappointed in the outcome; that is, we were not able to proceed with that--I think it did focus the attention of both sides of the aisle. It was a bipartisan vote, but it wasn't bipartisan enough to be able to proceed to it this week. But I will add that on both sides of the aisle people have come forward and said we are very serious about doing this in a way that is appropriate. I think there may well be an opportunity, at the appropriate time, to address that issue. The Democratic leader and I are both personally involved with asbestos. He has mentioned it and I have mentioned it. That should send a strong signal to people that we are seriously committed, in a bipartisan way, to addressing an issue that is affecting families, the economy, and jobs; and I do hope that those discussions will continue to be productive as we go forward. Having said that, next week is going to be a very busy week. I look forward to it being a very productive week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 240, designating National American Indian Heritage Month.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam 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. 414, 415, 416, 422, 423, 426, 427, 428, and nominations on the Secretary's desk. I further ask unanimous consent that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and the President be notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand S. 1781 is at the desk and is due for a second reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. With this agreement in place, the two managers will be here at approximately 10 this morning to begin debate on this appropriations measure. There will be no rollcall votes during today's session. As a reminder, a cloture motion was filed on the nomination of Michael Leavett to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. That vote will occur at 5:30 on Monday. In addition to that vote on Monday, I would expect consideration of amendments to the foreign operations bill. I will have more to say on that later, after I have consulted with the manager of that bill, the distinguished majority whip. I have also repeated our desire to complete a number of other important issues as we press on during these final weeks. The objection to begin consideration of the fair credit reporting bill was removed and we reached a consent to be able to proceed to that measure. Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach a consent for the consideration of the Healthy Forests legislation, but we will continue to work on and for that agreement. The CARE Act continues to be held up from proceeding to conference. The deadline for action on the Internet tax moratorium is fast approaching and we really need to expedite that bill. I mentioned the other day the importance of the Protection of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act. This bill has over 54 cosponsors and should be considered by the Senate before we adjourn. Nominations, in particular judicial nominations--those nominations which have been held up--do demand our attention and should be given their due process on the floor of the Senate. I mention all of these items while we continue the ongoing appropriations process. There is much work to do and little time in which to do it. Thus, we must make very efficient use of the Senate's time. I hope Members will help the leadership on both sides of the aisle as we go forward and schedule these remaining weeks. These individual pieces of legislation, as well as the appropriations bills, as well as those bills that are in conference, must get done before we depart.