Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I move to commit S. 14 to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources with the instructions to report back forthwith with the following amendment. The text of amendment SA 1432 is printed in today's Record under ``Text of Amendments.''

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported substitute amendment be withdrawn; that the Campbell substitute be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 100, S. 523.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported amendments be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 210, S. 929.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 206, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the matter be printed in the Record as if read.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I understand that S. 1504, introduced by Senator Gregg earlier today, is at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask for its second reading and object to further proceeding.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic leader, the Senate proceed to the House message with respect to S. 3, the partial-birth abortion bill, and that it be considered under the following limitations: That the only motion in order be a motion to disagree to the House amendment to the Senate bill; that there be 8 hours of debate with respect to that motion, with the time equally divided and controlled between the majority and Democratic leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote on the motion to disagree; that upon disposition of that motion, the Senate agree to the request for a conference, and that the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate with a ratio of 3-to-2, without further intervening action or debate.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, indeed it is in the unanimous consent request that a time will be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader. It will not be in the middle of the night. We will find a mutually appropriate time.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I send a second-degree amendment to the desk and ask for its consideration.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the live quorum be waived.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 220, S. 926.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I will use a couple minutes prior to the vote in response to some of the comments that have been made, specifically in response to the Democratic leader's comments which I understand really are two. Are we committed to addressing energy issues and completing this bill? We are. We will continue to work aggressively on this bill starting earlier than we normally would and continuing later tonight. Again, I ask for amendments to come forward. We are going to address them one by one in a systematic way with adequate time for debate and amendment. Second, the question has been raised as to why we are considering these votes today, such as cloture on Miguel Estrada. The answer is, the American people deserve it. They understand we are not fulfilling our responsibility in this body without an up-or-down vote. That is our job. That is our responsibility. It is advice and consent of the judicial nominees sent by the President of the United States. That is being denied by the other side of the aisle. That is unacceptable to us. That is why that is being voted on today. I made it very clear in my request both publicly and otherwise that we would like to stack these votes as we are voting on other energy amendments; it is not us who requested the time. The complaint was made we were in a quorum call; why were we sitting in a quorum call in the middle of this bill? It should be made very clear that they requested that time and it was on their time that we were in a quorum call. I, once again, make this plea for a vote like today. When the initial request was made, it was that we have the vote and not spend a lot of time discussing the issue. Second, let me reinforce a point I made this morning; that is, we are being required by the other side of the aisle to use a lot of our valuable time, time that is increasingly valuable as we get closer and closer to the recess, to rollcall votes on district judges. That has not been done in the past. Once again, I ask and, in fact, plead with the other side to change this request they have made that we spend so much time on rollcall votes which historically have been unnecessary. On the issues of Chile and Singapore, I have made it very clear that we will move those to a time after energy unless we are not dealing with an issue on energy. I will talk to the other side of the aisle. If there is debate on Chile and Singapore, we will probably do it after we have the final energy votes this week. Then we will take up Chile and Singapore trade issues at that point. The same issue will come up tomorrow because we will be voting on Judge Pryor. I am sure the same issues will come up about spending time and people will come to the floor and spend time. I make it clear, our request last night was to set aside time, some time in the future--not necessarily this week--to debate and discuss Pryor and have an up-or-down vote on Pryor. That was refused. Again, it would not have been this week--it could be sometime during September-- but there was an objection to that unanimous consent request. Thus, we will proceed with a vote tomorrow. Again, I make it clear my initial request is not to use a lot of time simply to be able to go to Pryor but that we proceed aggressively on energy. The American people deserve it. We will do it in an orderly way as we go forward today. I am confident we can complete this Energy bill if we stay focused, work together. The American people deserve it. I am confident we can do that. I yield the floor. Cloture Motion

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, there will be additional votes this evening. We are going to stack these two rollcall votes at 10 minutes. The chairman and ranking member have been here since 9 o'clock this morning. They have been working hard. We will continue tonight. We will finish the electricity amendment today. Therefore, Members can expect votes into the evening. Vote on Amendment No. 1418

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until 9 a.m., Thursday, July 31. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin debate in relation to the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of William Pryor, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, with the time until 10 a.m. equally divided between the chairman and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, or their designees; provided that at 10 a.m. the Senate proceed to the vote on the motion to invoke cloture. I further ask unanimous consent that following the cloture vote, regardless of the outcome, the Senate resume consideration of S. 14, the Energy bill.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the live quorum provided for under rule XXII be waived.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we resume legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period for morning business.