Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will close. I know people will be coming over to speak in morning business. We have an hour.

Mr. FRIST

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. FRIST. First of all, I congratulate the managers. The bill has been handled perfectly. It allows us to continue on in the appropriations process in an orderly manner. It allows adequate and good time for debate and discussion. I congratulate them. As the managers just said, there are a couple of packages being worked on now. Then we will have final passage by voice vote. Tonight there will be no more rollcall votes. The exact times will be announced later tonight, but we plan on going to DC appropriations at 10:30 tomorrow morning. The specific times in terms of morning business and all will be announced later. I congratulate the managers and all our colleagues on making tremendous progress in the overall appropriations process. I appreciate everybody's cooperation and patience on these very important bills. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President I want to enter into a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Interior Subcommittee concerning the funding in this bill for our National Zoo. I know that the chairman is very aware of the problems that have plagued our National Zoo over this last year. Many of these problems simply relate to deteriorating physical conditions of the zoo. Buildings and other animal habitats are literally falling apart. This crown jewel of the Smithsonian is actually at risk of losing its accreditation from the American Zoo and Aquarian Association. What a terrible message this would send to the American public that its national zoo cannot even meet accreditation standards. We owe it to the American people, the thousands of children who visit the zoo annually, to visitors from all over the world, and most importantly to the safety and protection of these wonderful animals to do all we can to restore the conditions there to a safe and healthy environment. I ask the chairman of the subcommittee, in conference with the House on this bill will you work to provide a level of funding that will once again restore this wonderful institution to the level befitting of being a ``national'' zoo and to help maintain its accreditation?

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning, the Senate will conduct a period for morning business to allow Senators to speak. Following morning business, at approximately 10:30 a.m., the Senate will resume consideration of the Interior appropriations bill. Under the order from last night, there will be 10 additional minutes for debate in relation to Senator Daschle's amendment on Indian health care. Therefore, the first vote of today's session will occur at approximately 10:45 a.m. Following that vote, we hope to be in a position to schedule additional votes on some of the other pending amendments. We will recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. for the weekly party luncheons to meet, and it is our hope to have additional votes prior to that recess. We do expect to finish the appropriations bill today or this evening, if necessary. Once completed, we will continue with other appropriations bills, possibly the DC appropriations legislation. I also remind Members once again that we will be scheduling votes on available judicial nominations and others throughout the week. Over the course of the last 24 hours, people have been recovering in the region from the natural disaster we had last week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them, of course. There are many people, including many people in this body, who do not have electricity or are having water problems. We had rain last night, so we have continued problems. We will continue to work together to get people back to normal lives, but our thoughts and prayers are with them. Lastly, as I mentioned yesterday, this week is a very busy week in addressing the request for $87 billion to further the war against terrorism, and our goal is to have a good debate, good exchange of information, asking the tough questions. That started yesterday afternoon with some fantastic hearings chaired by the President pro tempore, who is in the Chair now, that went into last evening. Hearings will be held by a number of other committees over the course of this week, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Next week, I hope to be able to address the request on the floor of the Senate. I would like to aim for having that request completed by the end of next week and before we go out for the following week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today President Bush will be addressing the United Nations, and he is asking those who champion freedom to pull together and support the reconstruction of Iraq. He will make a powerful case because freedom is a powerful force. Freedom is a beacon to people all over this land-- indeed, all over the world. It leads countries to greatness and men and women to their highest aspirations. We look forward to hearing his comments later this morning. It is clear this body will stand by the Iraqis, will help them build a free, prosperous, and democratic Iraq. Their future, indeed, our security and the security of civilized people everywhere depends on it.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will resume debate on H.R. 2691, the Interior appropriations bill. We currently have five amendments which are pending to the bill. This afternoon the two managers will be discussing which of those amendments will be ready for Senate votes. I announced last week that we would be voting today and asked that the managers consider beginning that vote--we will probably have two votes, although we will be discussing that over the afternoon--at 5:30 this afternoon. If further debate is necessary on amendments or we are unable to set a time certain for the votes on those amendments it will be my intention to schedule a judicial nomination tonight. So I am pretty certain we will be voting about 5:30, but as soon as we firm that up after discussion with the leadership on both sides we will make that known to our colleagues. With respect to the remainder of the week, we will try to finish the Interior appropriations bill as early as possible tomorrow. The managers were here Thursday and continued to work through this past Thursday morning. They, of course, are here and will continue to be here through the afternoon and early evening, although I do not want to encourage any new amendments. If anybody is at all considering amendments, we must have those come forward as soon as possible. Following completion of the Interior appropriations bill, as we mentioned last week, we will continue with the appropriations process. We will possibly begin consideration of the DC appropriations bill, although I want to talk to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and the various managers. We will consult with the leadership, the managers, and the appropriate committee chairmen to make that determination as we move a little bit closer. We finished last week very strong, and as a number of conference reports become ready, I anticipate bringing them to the floor this week, if possible. We could schedule hopefully those conference reports with short time agreements and votes this week. At the end of last week, I also mentioned that there are 11 judicial nominations on today's Executive Calendar. Six are ready to be scheduled for votes, and I will be scheduling these for floor action over the course of the next couple of days. At an appropriate time, I want to make a brief statement and would be happy to turn to the assistant leader of the other side for any comments about the week or the schedule for clarification for our colleagues.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will comment on a couple of subjects. First, with regard to the natural disaster we had last Thursday and Thursday night, the tragedies continue to unfold in regard to damage along the east coast. As I walk around the Capitol today, it is very clear to me a large number of people on Capitol Hill, from Maryland, Virginia, and the surrounding areas have been struck very hard. A number of people are without electricity and clean water and are really suffering daily right now as I speak. I have spoken to different people asking if their electricity is up, and they have said: No. So that is Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night, and now Monday. I know the local disaster relief and utility repair persons are working very hard, and we respect all of their work a great deal. Again, it is time for everybody to pull together as we address the powerful effects and potential devastation from this hurricane. So our thoughts and prayers are with everybody. Everybody should gather together and we will pull through this as well as we might.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. The second subject I want to comment on is the continual news that we have with regard to what is going on in Baghdad. Today we received news that a suicide bomber detonated himself at the entrance of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The bomber injured 19 people, including 2 Iraqi United Nations workers. This terrorist action follows an assassination attempt over the weekend on Aquila al-Hashimi, one of the three women who is serving on the Iraqi governing council. I understand through reports that Ms. Al- Hashimi is recovering from the attempt on her life. Most of my colleagues know she is a leading candidate to become Iraq's future United Nations ambassador. These outrageous attacks demonstrate the level of cowardice and depravity that indeed is almost beyond words, that the enemy would stalk and attack a woman who is serving her people and murder Iraqi civilians attempting to build a representative democracy or, as we just saw, one guardsman inspecting a car. That they would do these things shows us once again the ugly face of our enemy. Some in this body have claimed there is no connection between Saddam and al-Qaida. This is false. As the President said last week, there is no question Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties. We know Saddam permitted the operation of a terrorist training camp on Iraqi soil. We know the Iraqi intelligence chief, Faruk Hijazi, met with bin Laden and his associates. And we know Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was harbored in Iraq. We are now learning from documents found in Tikrit that he may have even received payments and a home from the Iraqi Government. Thus, there is no doubt--there is no doubt--that Saddam was in league with terrorists. Saddam himself was the embodiment of terror. There can also be no doubt that Saddam is finished; that Iraq, the American people, and the civilized world are better off without him and without his terror-sponsoring regime. It is my expectation the Senate will turn to consideration of the President's emergency request for Iraq and Afghanistan on the floor next week. It is my hope that we will have good debate, both in committees over the course of this week and, indeed, on the Senate floor, and complete action on this legislation before the Senate recesses on October 3. I know Senators on both sides of the aisle have a lot of questions-- many questions. The post-war situation in Iraq has required sacrifice. We see it every day--from the families who are separated by service, the families who are our constituents and friends to whom we talk on a daily basis and, most of all, those who have lost loved ones in the ongoing fighting. The President has laid out a plan and a vision to move us forward. By actively participating in this debate we can fulfill that vision and support our service men and women who have already sacrificed so much. We will also send a message to friend and foe around the world that America will stand with the Iraqi people; that America will defeat the enemies of peace and democracy. It is that message that I believe, through our committee hearings this week, through our discussions and through the debate on the Senate floor, will ring most loudly--that America will stand with the Iraqi people and America will defeat the enemies of peace and democracy. In preparation for next week's debate, Senate committees--this week, in fact, beginning right now at 2--will begin holding a whole series of hearings to examine and discuss the President's request. The Senate Appropriations Committee will be holding two hearings, the Foreign Relations Committee will be holding three hearings, and the Armed Services Committee will be holding one hearing. Each will examine closely the President's proposal, and I am confident that with the appropriate discussion and with that scrutiny it will win overwhelming support in the Senate. The world now has before it a window to help the Iraqi people reclaim their future as a free people. The foundation of a democratic and stable Iraq will only be found in economic opportunity and liberty. It is this foundation that best defines--and this will play out as we talk over the course of this week--this is a foundation of economic opportunity coupled with security that President Bush's proposal best provides. With our $20 billion investment, we will not reconstruct the economy of Iraq, as a lot of people say or which they envision. That is not what the $20 billion will be doing. That can only be done by the Iraqi people themselves. The Iraqi economy can only be reconstructed by the Iraqi people. It can only be done by their own resourcefulness, by their own commitment, by their own entrepreneurship, and by their own imagination. Yes, Iraqis now have the freedom to become entrepreneurs, to be creative, and to have that creativity realized and translated through democratic principles into economic opportunity. What we must do is create a stable environment in which that newfound freedom will be allowed to flourish. From our investment will flow other investments from other nations willing to help the Iraqi people and from the developing resources of the Iraqi people themselves. Our investment, at least as I see it, is not an obligation: it is a choice. It is a choice that the United States supports the Iraqi people. It is a choice that we believe democracy can and will flourish among them. And it is a choice that the American people are made more secure by Iraq having a free and democratic state. The swift victory of our troops this spring makes us forget in some ways the threat Saddam once posed. We lived with the threat and instability emanating from Iraq for over two decades. Twice Saddam Hussein was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons--once stopped by the courageous airstrike by Israel and once stopped by the United States coalition in the 1991 gulf war. Twice Saddam Hussein invaded his neighbors to expand his reign of terror--once into Iran and once into Kuwait. Twice we sent the United States military to confront Saddam Hussein--once expelling him from Kuwait and once expelling him from Baghdad. Saddam Hussein played host to international terrorists to the very last day of his reign. Some will argue that we cannot afford to finish the job in Iraq. We can't afford not to. We have already invested billions of dollars, through two wars and through two decades, in trying to end this persistent threat to the stability of the Middle East and to the safety of the United States and its allies. We have it now within our power to ensure once and for all that there will be no third attempt to build yet another nuclear weapon. We have it within our power to ensure that there is not a third gulf war for yet another generation of Americans to fight. We have it within our power to help the Iraqi people build Iraq to become an exporter of stability in the region instead of the source of deadly weapons of war and oppression. By putting Iraq on the path to economic opportunity and democracy, we will shift the entire strategic direction of the Middle East. By finishing the job we started, we will ensure a safer future for our own people. I look forward to this debate in Senate, and I am confident that the outcome will be overwhelming support for the President of the United States. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume debate on H.R. 2691, the Interior appropriations bill. It is my understanding that several amendments may be offered during today's session. As I announced previously, there will be no rollcall votes today, and any votes ordered will be stacked to occur during Monday's session. I reiterate that we intend to finish the Interior bill sometime on Tuesday. Therefore, we could have multiple votes on Monday to further our efforts to complete this bill. Also, I should add that over the course of the morning we will be closely monitoring the weather situation, recognizing that the weather will have a great impact both on the business here this morning and over the course of this afternoon and tomorrow. Our schedules will be adjusted accordingly, as the weather worsens. When we finish our business today, we will adjourn until Monday, and that time will be announced. Today, only essential personnel have been encouraged to come to work this morning. And individual offices, individual committees have made decisions. We will continue this morning, and I would think that after we address the amendments that will be brought to us shortly, we will be adjourning.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as we look back over the last several days, over the course of the week, even though it will be cut short by the impending weather, we have had a very productive week. We addressed H.R. 2754, which is the energy and water appropriations bill, led by Senator Pete Domenici, and over the course of that bill disposed of over 20 amendments over a 2-day period. The House message to accompany S. 3, the partial-birth abortion ban bill, led on our side by Senator Santorum, was completed this week, and now conferees can be appointed and that important piece of legislation addressed in conference and then sent to the President of the United States for his signature. We also completed S.J. Res. 17, the FCC disapproval resolution. Then, yesterday, we confirmed an additional five U.S. district judges. As I pointed out yesterday, we still have six judges ready to come to the floor, and we will attempt to bring those to the floor as soon as we possibly can. I would like to get all of those done early next week. We also, this week, began the Interior Appropriations bill, which we will continue this morning and Monday and aim for completion on Tuesday. Mr. President, I note, in a few minutes, we are going to be going to the Interior bill, but I would like, at the appropriate time, to make a statement on a recent mission trip that I took to Africa.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, S. Con. Res. 68 reflects upon the recent loss of Johnny Cash. Tennessee and the world, indeed, lost one of its great heroes. His influence simply cannot be understated in any way. It is felt today, and it will be felt for many years to come. A country music legend, and one of Rock 'n Roll's founding fathers, Cash's work transcended both generation and genre. But what so many will remember is that he was a man of the people across this great Nation--indeed, across the world, giving a voice to so many people who really did not have a voice before. He captured that not just over one generation but several generations. And that voice will carry on over many generations in the future. I extend my condolences to the Cash family. I know I speak for many in saying that Johnny Cash is a legend, and his imprint on American music and culture is and will continue to be profound. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 68.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I object to further proceedings on the measure at this time.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that H.R. 49 is at the desk and is due for its second reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, last month I had the privilege of traveling to the southern African nations of South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, and Namibia, along with five of our colleagues in the Senate. I try to visit the continent of Africa at least once a year. Part of the trip is generally spent doing medical mission work and part of it doing more official business. Over the next several minutes I will reflect a bit upon what we learned as a group with my colleagues on the official part of the recent trip. As in previous trips, I was again struck by the optimism, the perseverance, the courage of the people I met on the African continent, impressed by their openness, impressed by their warmth, impressed by their generosity and by their hospitality. The purpose of our mission was very focused and straightforward. It was not just going and looking at the countries and getting a feel for their governments and overall approach to ruling and to the people there but to determine how best the United States, with others, can coordinate efforts to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic which, as I have said many times before, I believe is the greatest humanitarian, moral, and public health challenge of the last 100 years. Several of my colleagues have already come to the floor and offered some of their reflections and impressions on our recent visit to the continent. I thank Senators Warner, DeWine, Enzi, Alexander, and Coleman for their comments and for joining our delegation to study HIV/ AIDS in Africa, as well as Dr. Joe O'Neill, who is Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, who accompanied us as well. Dr. O'Neill, who has vast experience as both a physician and someone who has focused on HIV/AIDS, both in the clinic delivering care and in terms of education and research, and now public policy, was a tremendous resource for us. In addition, it allowed us to integrate our ideas on an ongoing basis on this particular trip. I thank all of them for their thoughts, their remarks, their questions, and comments as we traveled through the southern aspect of Africa, as well as their remarks on the floor since. In sum, our team had a very productive trip. We met with patients, doctors, nurses. We met with community leaders, activists. We met with the presidents of the countries and other government officials who have been trying to fight and are continuing to fight on the front line this deadly epidemic--this group of people all working together from different vantage points to bring hope and relief to millions and millions of people who are HIV positive, have the manifestations of that infection, which is AIDS, a disease today for which we have no cure. No part of the world has been more affected by HIV/AIDS than southern Africa, although we all know that the rate of growth was tremendous in Russia and throughout the Caribbean. There are probably more people in India than any other country in the world with HIV/AIDS. But in Africa, where this disease had its impact initially, we see what indeed can happen and is happening to countries throughout the world. The story of the impact in Africa needs to be told in a way that people understand in order to encourage support of the global community in reversing this epidemic. Graca Machel, who is a truly remarkable former first lady of Mozambique, told us that because of HIV/AIDS: We are facing extinction. We still face the worst of the epidemic. Let me repeat: We are facing extinction. When you hear those words from leaders, from people who are intimately involved, and you think of extinction caused by this little tiny virus of a people, of a population, of a nation, you realize the significance of this huge challenge before us. We learned several things. First and foremost, we learned that leadership and political will are absolutely critical. It must come from the top, but it must occur at every level--vertically, down to the most grassroots level. We saw effective, comprehensive responses to HIV/AIDS in many parts of Africa. In those areas where it has been most successful, there has been a strong political will and leadership. We have to start at the very top, with the president or the leader of an affected country. And you need to extend down to that local tribal leader, the person in a local community or a local village or at the tribal level, that person to whom people turn, that person whom people trust, that person who, if they articulate the realities, can cut through the stigma, which I will come to here shortly. In the country of South Africa, we met with community leaders who were struggling with the political leaders for years over the development of specific response and treatment plans that would save thousands of lives with new treatment approaches and mechanisms and drugs. A lot of this has come to a head over the last year or 2 years. Indeed, until just several weeks ago, the political leadership there, I believe, had failed to address much of the reality that this little virus causes HIV/AIDS, for which we have no cure. In South Africa, the country itself, more than 5 million people are infected with the disease, for which there is no cure. In contrast to a political will that seems slow to come to the surface, you go to Botswana, in Gaborone, where we met with President Festus Mogae, who, in an effort to reduce the stigma surrounding the virus in the United States and around the world, and in Africa as well, publicly had himself tested. That was part of an effort to show the importance of testing nationwide, to send a strong signal across the country. This sort of unambiguous leadership sends a strong message to the people. It focuses attention, and indeed it works. As a result of that, Botswana is making notable progress in fighting this pandemic and bringing understanding, security, and hope to its people. Prevention and care must be linked to treatment, and treatment must be preceded by testing because you have to make the diagnosis. All that sounds straightforward--making the diagnosis so that you can have care and treatment. But what is interesting is that 90 percent of the people in the world who have the virus don't know they are HIV positive, and until you can identify who is positive and who is not, it is hard to engage in the specific treatment aspect for that virus. What is not quite so intuitive, but absolutely fact, I believe, is that testing for the virus can become the cornerstone of prevention of the virus. Why? Because testing, because of the great technology today, takes us 15 minutes to do--when I was in Africa before, it took about 3 weeks. In technology there has been great progress. After testing--15 minutes--the counselor or the person doing the test, at that same setting, can have what is called a teachable moment when one can learn about HIV and learn how to prevent HIV. If one is HIV positive, they can learn how to stop and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. It is critical. For example, there are 100 people in this body, and if they were all HIV positive, only 10 would know. You see, we have a lot we need to do in order to at least identify it so that we can educate those people who may have HIV/AIDS. In Kasane, Botswana, we saw how, using two simple tests, a person can be tested in 15 minutes while receiving that counseling in an effort called voluntary counseling and testing, VCT. I mention those three letters because, as people in this body and our colleagues know more and more about the virus and what we can do, you will hear about VCT, voluntary counseling and testing. If the individual tested negative at that sitting--they don't have HIV--he or she can be counseled as to how to avoid that infection. Then that person is encouraged to go home and talk to their family about the particular virus and about prevention, how to avoid this virus. If the individual tests positive on that encounter, they can immediately be exposed to the options for care and treatment, if available, as well as contact with peer support groups. Botswana is one of the countries we visited where the overall sophistication is high. There have been a lot of resources devoted, through partnerships to Botswana, and the impact right now is beginning to be felt. There are no easy answers. This will not be addressed in 1, or 5, or 10 years. It is going to take 15, 20 years to fully address HIV/AIDS. Another important lesson we learned is that we must take steps to make treatment widely available. This is something that was, for me, really brought out on this particular trip. Even on the trip I took a little over a year ago, it wasn't quite as dramatic. But it is critical that treatment be made available as widely as possible. President Bush's emergency plan for global AIDS calls for 2 million people to be on treatment by 2006. That is an ambitious goal. We can meet that goal if we focus and make sure that taxpayer dollars we spend are directed to proven, robust prevention care and treatment programs. There is an unlimited amount of money and resources you can devote. People talk $5 billion, or $10 billion, or $15 billion. You can spend $100 billion on trying to fight HIV/AIDS. I think it is important that we spend our taxpayer dollars wisely, in such a way that we know they will have an impact--not just over 6 months or a year but 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 years. This is a long-term commitment and one at which we need to stay in a determined fashion. Perhaps the single largest challenge to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, through prevention, care, and treatment, is the need to help develop the medical infrastructure to deliver health care safely and effectively. It is not just in South Africa, it is in the United States and every country. It comes down to the fact that it is not just a diagnostic kit. You don't just give diagnostic kits to everybody in the world and expect everything to fall into place. It means you don't just have the drugs, the little vial of drugs, and send it, just as you would not send it anywhere in this country or to other countries; you would not send it to Africa without making sure it could be appropriately stored and appropriately transported, that it could be actually delivered to the patient in a secure and safe way. It is complicated and frustrating, in many ways, in the United States as well. This takes an overall system that we have to continue to develop and partner with and contribute to in terms of resources to make sure it is fully developed. A message we heard again and again was the request for the United States to help provide expertise and training. This shortage of trained medical and health personnel at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, which is the largest hospital I have ever been in or practiced in, in the United States or in England--it may be the largest hospital in the world. It is in Soweto, South Africa. We had the opportunity to visit the wards there and visit with the staff. When I close my eyes, I can see the exhausted faces of those nurses, the nurse practitioners, and the physicians, as we listened to them describe the desperate need for more trained staff--staff who have an understanding of HIV-related diseases, the infectious diseases that appear when one has this virus, which suppresses or holds down one's immune system and thus makes an individual more likely to get different infections. They told us about the need for nurses to help do the testing and administer the tests and the need for social workers because it is not just giving the medicine, the antiretroviral therapy, if somebody has HIV/AIDS; it is the care, the nutrition, carrying out daily activities of living in South Africa, and thus you need a whole cadre of social workers to address the care, as well as the treatment aspects of responding to this virus. They talked about the need for counselors to teach them how to avoid and cope with HIV infection. They talked about the need for administrative staff. They look to the United States to help partner to provide this trained expertise. We learned, in addition, that we must build partnerships. It cannot be done by one country, or one organization, or one company; it is going to require huge partnerships. That is going to take partnerships of government and of the NGOs--nongovernment organizations--religious organizations, social organizations, pharmaceutical companies, universities, all of which can come together to build these so-called capacity needs, to build the effective partnerships to address the challenges we have. In Botswana, we visited the appropriately named Masa--that means ``new dawn''--Masa Clinic. Masa is funded by the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Program, called ACHAP, which also supports the Coping Centres for People Living with HIV/AIDS, COCEPWA, and the Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme. That sort of partnership, that cross- fertilization is working. The African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Program is a unique partnership that is sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Merck pharmaceutical company, and the Government of Botswana. It is a remarkable program that was launched 3 years ago in July 2000. It is providing free antiretroviral treatment, counseling, and care for now over 6,000 Africans. Patients in the Masa program--it has been fascinating to me--have a 92- to 100-percent rate of compliance following this prescribed treatment/drug program, and that is very high. I think compliance with their population in Botswana is equally high to compliance of a similar regimen in any western country--in the United States or in Europe. People are adhering to that regimen that is laid before them day after day. It is truly remarkable. The highest compliance rates among western countries is 15 to 20 percent lower than that particular figure. So when people say, in Africa it is hard to pull off these complicated treatment programs, that is absolutely wrong. That is just absolutely wrong. While we were in South Africa, we visited something I have never seen before. We visited the huge gold mining facilities. The one we visited was called Anglo Gold, or part of Anglo Gold. They have their own hospital to treat their miners. There are about 25,000 employees and maybe--they don't really know yet--as many as a third of all those employees are HIV/AIDS infected. Again, that is sort of typical. It may be less than that; it may be a little bit more, but it is a huge number. Therefore, in terms of not just care and compassion but just productivity, because you need a healthy workforce, they have a wonderful program, a comprehensive program that is involved in prevention, care, and treatment at Anglo Gold. They are bringing antiretroviral treatment to HIV-infected employees directly. We had the opportunity to talk to the employees and the impact that is making on their lives and the lives of their families and the lives of their extended families in their villages. We had the real pleasure of visiting St. Mary's Hospital in Rehoboth, Namibia, which is preventing new infections through President Bush's Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Program. We have talked on the floor a lot about the importance of treating the mother with one dose of a drug called Nevirapine--a very inexpensive drug--and then treating the baby within the first 24 hours with one dose of Nevirapine. It cuts that transmission down at least by 50 percent. That particular program is having great success. In Windhoek, Namibia, we visited the Bernard Noordkamp Camp Center run by the Catholic Church which provides care and nutritional support and counseling to hundreds of orphaned children. All of my colleagues are familiar with the thousands and thousands of orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS, children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. That figure will go to 10 million to 14 million over the next 10 years. Another point we learned is we must reach people where they live. You cannot have a program designed for even one country and have it apply to every village in another country. You really need to be able to reach people in their own communities. Most Africans don't live in the big urban areas and, thus, the importance of mobile clinics, going out to the villages, is absolutely critical. We saw a lot of creative responses to the problem. It could be very resource intensive. In Carletonville, South Africa, we saw the mobile clinics, the mobile vans with trained personnel and medical gear. These vans drive out into the bush to bring that voluntary counseling, treatment, and basic care to people who otherwise simply would not have access to the care. There is no hospital or the nearest hospital or clinic might be 100 miles away, and with most of the people walking, it takes days to reach a clinic. It is impractical. These units would be able to identify people with serious illness and have them come to the local village clinic or the closest village clinic. In Kasane, Botswana, we saw a mobile rapid-testing lab that travels through that whole Kasane region. By closing the gap between people and health care providers in these innovative ways, we strengthen the overall capacity to deliver health care to those people to cope with HIV/AIDS. That provides a structure which can be replicated throughout not just South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, or Mozambique but in other areas throughout the continent and, indeed, throughout the world. I mentioned this earlier, and this will be one of my final points, we learned we absolutely have to address the stigma and discrimination that is associated with HIV/AIDS. We have had to address it in the United States of America. We continue to address it throughout Africa. It is very similar. This stigma is a universal barrier. Every African nation we mentioned said it is a major challenge. Because of fear and discrimination, African women told us again and again they are afraid to get tested out of fear of retribution by their husbands. When we talked with African men, they said they are afraid to be tested because of their fear of discrimination in their workforce or being shunned in their local communities or being shunned by their family. If you have the stigma, people don't ever make it to the VCT-- voluntary counseling and testing. They want to stay at home even if they are sick. They say: I don't want to get tested because if someone finds me HIV positive, then I will be discriminated against. So there is a huge disincentive to be tested. It makes people reluctant to be educated about the virus or even talk about the virus. One of the most powerful ways of cutting through this stigma is to have the political leaders, the well-recognized leaders of the village come forward and say: We have to address it. Why? Because the possibility of extinction is actually there. To effectively fight AIDS, it is important that people know what steps to take. Therefore, we have to reach that teachable moment, but to reach that teachable moment, we have to destigmatize. One of the real advances that has been made--and most people have been watching Bono, who has been here this week and talked to a number of people, and who is a very effective voice. He talks passionately about this subject. I have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time working with him on this terribly important issue. He points out the importance of the moral cause and the moral drive in terms of our responsibility, not just the United States but as the global community. I think he is right on target with that particular message as a global community. In our discussions yesterday, we were commenting on the tremendous positive change in the believers of the world, in the faith-based communities, in the churches, in the mosques, in the temples--in the churches broadly. There has been a huge sea change over the last 2 or 3 years because of the moral necessity, the moral correctness of addressing this particular issue. That is very important for lots of different reasons. It is important for the offering of hope and compassion and caring and treatment and support, and it is equally important because, to have the church leaders and faith-based leaders stand up repeatedly and say this is an important issue, then people listen and people understand. If they hear it from their political leaders and they hear it from the church leaders, all of a sudden you can start tearing apart this stigma, which is the barrier to reversing this pandemic that is upon us. Prevention messages must resonate locally. I mentioned Graca Machel, the former first lady in Mozambique. She told us of the difficulty of discussing HIV/AIDS. She told us of how her Foundation for Community Development works with faith-based organizations to reduce that stigma of HIV/AIDS. We asked her how specifically they do it, and they do it by using well-understood Bible verses and Bible messages that connect with people. All of a sudden, through that connection, they take away the shame that so often is attached to this stigma and discrimination. She reminded us also of the importance of creating practical messages that appeal specifically to men. Right now in the world there are more women with HIV/AIDS than there are men, which is interesting. Most people would think initially there are a lot more men. The challenge in many ways is to reach the men. She is very directly developing specific messages that help educate them on the dangers of sexual promiscuity as the vehicle of spreading AIDS. She also shared her thoughts on the way to use multiple media sources--telephone lines, billboards, television, radio--to get the message out. She understands that all the knowledge in the world about HIV/AIDS is not worth very much unless it reaches the individual person. In Mozambique, we met the traditional healers from 10 villages. It was wonderful for me as a physician to be able to go out in a remote part of Mozambique and to have the traditional healers, for whom Western medicine is not something they have been exposed to much, and who use the traditional healing methods, interested in HIV/AIDS, asking the right questions, putting them forward, and then educating people. These traditional healers are the ones who give health care today. They have relationships like the doctor/patient relationship already with their villagers. They help destigmatize and encourage education about HIV/AIDS. They are the community leaders. We have to prepare for a future without AIDS. The devastation caused by AIDS is overwhelming. But we must continue to envision a world without HIV/AIDS, especially in countries that have been overtaken and are feeling the effects at the individual level, in families, and on the economies. Even if we get the disease under some sort of control, we need to think ahead and plan for the future. In all the countries in Africa that we visited we were met with hope for the future, hope for new trade agreements, which we need to work on, I believe, aggressively in this country. We heard about the hope that trade barriers will fall so economies will improve and jobs will open up. We listened and heard and were struck by the hope that they have for a prosperous life for their families. You have this devastating pandemic, terrible disease affecting the continent and individual countries. Yet it always comes back at the end of the conversation with a smile and optimism and hope. I think that is one of the aspects that attracts me back to that continent again and again. We should stand by them, partner with them, and maximize their opportunity for growth. In closing, I do thank the Ambassadors and staff of each of the nations that we visited: Ambassador Cameron Hume in South Africa, Deputy Chief of Mission Dennis Hankins in Mozambique, Ambassador Joe Huggins in Botswana, Ambassador Kevin McGuire in Namibia, for all of their outstanding work, their outstanding support. They opened their world to us in a way that we very much appreciate and that we will act upon over the coming weeks and months and years. They literally opened their homes to our delegation and worked overtime to make our trip a success. For that we are grateful. They are a great credit to the State Department and to the United States and to the people they represent. Those people are the people of the United States of America. I have gone on too long. Again, it was a dramatic, important trip for Members of the Senate as we look ahead to how best and most wisely invest our taxpayers' money, to this huge, bold, initiative, the boldest initiative taken in public health by any leader of any country ever, the initiative President Bush put forward to fight global HIV/ AIDS with $15 billion over 5 years. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Let me make one further statement and I will be happy to yield. Committee hearing decisions are being made today by chairmen. Again, we are going to be conducting business on the Senate floor. A number of chairmen called and said: Should we go ahead and cancel our hearings and committee meetings? That is being left to their discretion. Individual offices--I know a number are calling the Sergeant at Arms and calling our offices. We will stay in touch and we will come straight to the floor if there is any information in terms of safety that we know about as we go forward. These five judges are very important. I would add we have six judges who are also waiting, right now, whose nominations are ready to come to the floor and to be voted upon. I hope we can do that soon. I would like to be able, possibly, to do some of those on Monday. We have six more judges who are ready to go. I would be happy to yield for a question.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, first of all, congratulations to the managers of this bill. We are making real progress. We still have a number of amendments to look at, and discussions are ongoing. Even over the last several hours, while we have addressed the judges issue and completed debate and voting on the partial-birth abortion issue, work on Interior has continued. Overall, we are very pleased. This is really for the benefit of our colleagues to give them some idea of what will be happening here on the floor today, tonight, tomorrow, and over the next several days. First, we will have no more rollcall votes tonight or tomorrow or Friday. I start with that because I know that is what my colleagues are waiting to hear. Work will continue tonight on the Interior bill. In talking to the managers, a number of amendments are being considered. Debate will continue this afternoon and into this evening and tomorrow morning. We are in constant touch through the Sergeant at Arms and talking to FEMA about the weather conditions. Any decisions as to how long we will actually be in session will absolutely be focused on safety first and foremost. In saying that, we will be in session this afternoon and tonight, on Interior. We will come in tomorrow morning, and we will make the announcement when, but probably at 9:30 in the morning. I doubt that we will be on the floor all day. Again, the weather in part, the debate on the Interior bill in part, will determine that. We will not be in session on Friday. We will have votes on Monday, and likely multiple votes on Monday, since we are losing the opportunity for rollcall votes on Friday and Thursday and in part tonight. Business will continue, but it will mean that we will need to have multiple votes on Monday. We intend to make progress on Interior, but also would like to set as, really, the final--final passage on that Tuesday, at some point Tuesday. That means we have the amendments before us to consider, and if there are any other amendments, we absolutely must know about those.

Mr. FRIST. I will be happy to talk. We have been talking several days in advance each time. As the Democratic leader said, our intention is to go to appropriations and stay on appropriations. There is other business as we worked out to address partial-birth abortion and the judges. But the intention is to go to an appropriations bill. The specific one we don't know now. This is Wednesday. We are talking about a week from now. But we will stay in constant touch.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume debate on S.J. Res. 17, relating to the disapproval of an FCC rule. Under the order, the vote will occur on passage of that resolution at 10:45 this morning. Following that vote, the Senate will resume consideration of the energy and water appropriations bill. Pending is the Feinstein amendment relating to the robust nuclear earth penetrator. I encourage Members who would like to speak to that amendment to remain following the vote on the FCC resolution. It is hoped we can dispose of that amendment and continue with additional amendments to the energy and water appropriations bill. Rollcall votes will occur throughout the day as we attempt to finish our work on this bill, which will be the sixth appropriations bill to be completed. In addition, we will resume consideration of the House message to accompany S. 3, the partial-birth abortion ban, for the remaining 6 hours. Last night, the Senate used 2 of the 8 hours that were provided under the previous unanimous consent agreement. We will return to the debate following today's action on the energy and water bill. Also, today, we will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 for the weekly party luncheons to meet.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to express my strong support for the Appalachian Regional Commission, ARC, and to thank Chairman Domenici for his leadership and his support to ensure that the Appalachian Regional Commission's fiscal year 2004 funding needs are adequately met. The ARC was established in 1965 to support economic development in the Appalachian Region. Today, the region includes 410 countries in 13 States, representing a population of more than 23 million. There are 50 counties in Tennessee currently participating in the ARC. Funding provided by Congress is used by the commission to fund locally sponsored projects such as education and workforce training programs, highway construction, water and sewer system construction, leadership development programs, and small business start-ups and expansions. I am proud that a Tennessean, Anne B. Pope, is currently serving as the Federal Co-Chair of the Commission. In this position, she is working to further the ARC's five primary goals, which include improving education and workforce training, physical infrastructure, civic capacity and leadership, business development, and health care. Each year ARC provides competitive grant funding for several hundred projects to further these goals. In 1965, one in three Appalachian residents lived in poverty. However, by 1990, the poverty rate had been cut in half. ARC programs are helping to shape a brighter future for the Appalachian region by working with local communities to foster economic growth and development. Last year, Congress reauthorized the ARC's non-highway programs through 2006, and authorized new programs in telecommunications, entrepreneurship, and job-skills training. Moreover, the legislation signed by President Bush reinforced the ARC's commitment to economically distressed counties by mandating that at least half of the Commission's project funding be made available to support activities that benefit distressed areas. These changes will help to create more opportunities for areas still struggling to join the Nation's mainstream economy. I am proud of the work that the ARC is doing in Tennessee, and I applaud Chairman Domenici for his continued support of the ARC's programs. It is my hope that, as we move to conference, we can work together to ensure that the ARC's funding needs continue to be met.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, at this juncture, until I talk to our manager of the bill, I do not want to establish a fixed time. I do want to proceed to that vote earlier rather than later. We will continue that discussion and understand that they are ready fairly early in the day.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Before we begin, on behalf of myself, the Democrat leader, and all of my colleagues, I send a resolution to the desk and ask for its consideration.