Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 189, which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, this unanimous consent was with regard to our new Chaplain, ADM Barry Black, who will be joining us shortly as the 62nd Chaplain of the Senate. I have had the wonderful opportunity of initially meeting Admiral Black over the last several months and wish to point out his distinguished record of public service, his compelling life, his 27-year career in the Navy where he has delivered ministry to over 600,000 Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard service members. Since the year 2000 he has provided moral counsel, spiritual counsel to the Navy's top officers as the 22nd Chief of Navy Chaplains. He was the first person of color to hold that particular office in naval history. He has provided spiritual guidance to soldiers and their families during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. His calm manner, his soothing manner is a beautiful fit, I believe, for what this body both has come to depend on with our past Chaplains and has come to expect in our Chaplain, one of whom, Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, I had the opportunity to know for the last 8 years. Admiral Black has had an inspiring life, and I look forward to all of our colleagues and their spouses, their families, and the extended Senate family to come to know him in the way that I have. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of Executive Calendar No. 88.

Mr. FRIST. This nomination has been pending on the calendar since March 27. This is one of four nominations on the calendar to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that we have been hoping to clear for Senate action. I now send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. FRIST. I also announce if cloture is invoked and the nomination is subsequently confirmed, I will be prepared to ask unanimous consent that the remaining three nominations to the Court of Federal Claims be immediately confirmed so that all four nominations would be cleared at the same time.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I would further ask that on Tuesday, July 8, the Senate vote on the confirmation of the nomination of Executive Calendar No. 227, at 11:45 a.m.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 2 p.m., Monday, July 7. I further ask consent 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 begin a period of morning business, with Members permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to H.R. 2474 which is at the desk.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following measures en bloc: Calendar No. 173, S. Res. 62; Calendar No. 174, S. Res. 149; Calendar No. 187, S. Res. 90.

Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the amendments to the preambles, where applicable, be agreed to, and the preambles, as amended, if amended, be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements regarding these matters be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, most of our colleagues are departing, and we will shortly, in just a bit, for a recess which, as all of us know, is a time for visiting with our constituents, visiting around the country with people who give us the opportunity to serve in the Senate and interact with them in a way that we can ask questions. How are we doing? You elected us to fulfill a vision that you have had and which we are doing our best to lead with. So it gives us an opportunity to really sit back and assess how we are doing as public servants, as Senators representing our own States. As I look back over the last week, it has truly been an exciting week for America. After years of discussion, after years of debate, we passed a bill this morning, in the middle of the night, late last night after midnight, that we know, once we work through conference, and once it is signed by the President of the United States, will strengthen Medicare, will improve Medicare, will modernize Medicare in a way that we simply never have since the origin of Medicare in the mid-1960s. We know from this legislation that we developed in a bipartisan way, that for the first time in this program and, indeed, in the history of the country, seniors, through the Medicare Program, will have access to prescription drugs. They will have for the first time the option to choose health care coverage that best suits their individual needs. It is all voluntary. They don't have to take advantage of any of these new options that they will have. Their health care coverage will be responsive not only to them, the way this program is designed, but to the constant advances in health care delivery and new medicines and new technology that we know characterize health care today but will even more so characterize health care in the years to come. It will be able to capture those lifesaving innovations of modern medicine. Best of all--I keep mentioning it--I am very pleased with the way this bill came to the Senate floor, was debated, and in committee prior to that because it really was a bipartisan effort. Many times, especially when the American people look at the way we operate here, they say: That extreme partisanship and that rhetoric going back and forth; how in the world does any business get done? This particular legislation, probably as complicated as any legislation that would be on this floor--and clearly it is big; this is the largest single expansion of an entitlement program in the last 30 years--was carried out in a way that debate took place in a civil fashion and people came together, not always agreeing, as we saw last night and early this morning, on every single issue, but we tackled the issues head on, something our seniors deserve, something the American people expect. And we delivered a bill that reflects the needs and priorities of both sides of the aisle. Not everybody is perfectly happy with it. We know it is not perfect. But it is as good as can be generated from this body at this point in time. That is sort of the last week, the last couple weeks. Over the last 6 months, as leadership in the Senate, we have tried to lead this body in a way that is very much mission focused, that is very much building on relationships, centered on different relationships on both sides of the aisle in a way that values are important--the values of civility and trust, and with a real action orientation, looking for solutions to problems, not just talking about them, not just legislating for legislation's sake but actually delivering where problems are identified. So if you look at being mission focused and relationship centered and values based and action oriented, that is what you set out to do. Then it provides a good opportunity, now as we go into this recess about 6 months into the year, to see what sort of job we are delivering for the American people. Again, I mentioned the bill last night because I think it fits all four of those criteria and shows us with that common mission of moving America forward and doing it in a very respectful and civil way. Over the past 60 days, the Senate has acted, responded, and provided solutions to many of the jobs problems and the challenges brought to us. Every Senator can leave for this Fourth of July recess today proud of what they have accomplished on behalf of our fellow citizens. We passed the third largest tax cut in history. The Jobs and Growth Act is providing immediate relief to millions of Americans, American citizens, their families, to States, to businesses. Of the $350 billion stimulus and growth package that we passed, nearly $200 billion, a full 60 percent, is provided this year and next, not way off in the future. Indeed, many of those checks will start flowing in the next 4 weeks. This injection of money, this injection of resources will grow the economy, and by growing the economy will create jobs, will increase investment, will provide States with resources to maintain essential government services, and will reduce unemployment. On this chart, I do list, in this whole jobs and growth dimension, the fact that we did do a budget, the second earliest in the history of this body in terms of generating a budget on April 11. And we did pass the jobs and growth package on May 23. If you look, just since this jobs and growth package was signed into law, stocks have surged about $619 billion in value. We should not read too much into short-term fluctuations in stock prices, but indeed, recent trends in the stock market suggest that overall conditions are set for a resumption of strong overall economic growth. As I mentioned, because of passage of this jobs and growth package, American workers will have more money in their paychecks. A family of four making $40,000 will see their taxes reduced by $1,133 in 2003. Those checks for $400 will be sent to nearly 25 million taxpayers starting in about 4 weeks. We also voted in these last several weeks to expand the child tax credit to include low-income families. Because of the jobs and growth act, working Americans will have more money in their pockets to spend, to save, to invest how they wish next month. Last month, we also passed--I have this listed under health--the global HIV/AIDS bill on May 15. As a physician, as one who has been trying to fight this virus for the last 20 years--really since about 1983 when this virus first appeared--23 million people have been killed. It has infected another 40 million people alive today and will, in the best of all worlds, kill another 60 million people. This bill, in a bipartisan way, working with the President of the United States, who led, and with the House and with the Senate, will have the impact of helping prevent another 7 million infected people. It will help care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and AIDS orphans and probably, most importantly, does bring back hope to millions of people in this country but indeed all over the world who recognize that ultimately that virus can and will be destroyed. It links prevention, care, and treatment in a comprehensive way, led by the United States of America, where we can leverage our leadership so that countries all over the world will step up and join us arm in arm in fighting this deadly virus. Our work in passing this global HIV/AIDS legislation demonstrates that we as a society place a high value on life. History will judge us on how we respond to such challenges and, indeed, we can now say very proudly that we are responding, that we in this body made the right choice. We are taking the necessary steps to put an end to one of the most deadly scourges of human life in recorded history. It is a moral challenge, a medical challenge, a humanitarian challenge. But we are responding, and we are leading. Alongside these legislative accomplishments, we also passed a number of other measures. In the last 2 months we passed the Department of Defense authorization, the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, authorization, and the extension of unemployment benefits. We also allotted significant resources to upgrade technology at America's historically black colleges and universities. I am particularly very excited about this legislation because, again, firsthand, I have had the opportunity to visit and speak at historically black medical schools. In fact, I was at Morehouse School of Medicine a few weeks ago. On my visit there, I had the opportunity of looking at their technology and innovation center, where they are actually using technology to best teach young physicians-in-training so they will be able to extend the great power they have as physicians in making others' lives better. We took a historic step in bringing a National Museum of African American History and Culture to our Nation's Capital. There have been 80 years of petitions on bringing an African American museum to the family of museums we have here in Washington, but only in this Senate are we finally, by passing that legislation, close to having a museum of African American history in Washington on the Mall. I want to take the opportunity to thank all of my colleagues, but in particular Senator Brownback, and in the House, Congressman John Lewis, for their leadership on this initiative. We passed expedited hiring authority for the Security and Exchange Commission under the leadership of Senator Shelby. This legislation will allow the SEC to hire the accountants and the economists they need to enforce corporate accountability and maintain that investor confidence we know and trust, and that we know must be the undergirding foundation of our investor economy today. Our colleague from Maine, Senator Susan Collins, led the campaign to increase public access to cardiac or heart defibrillation. We passed a trauma care systems planning piece of legislation that is potentially important to everybody listening to me. If you happen to be in a motor vehicle accident driving home from work today, where are you going to go? How quickly are people going to respond? Are you going to have a tertiary trauma center nearby? We, in effect, will double our national efforts through this legislation as we focus on trauma care systems planning. I had the opportunity to introduce that, and passage was on June 23. My colleague from Tennessee, Senator Alexander--through his leadership, we passed the American History and Civics Education Act. Because of this act, and through this act, America's students will be able to learn our Nation's great history and civic traditions. That reminds me of Senator Gregg, the Senator from New Hampshire, and his tremendous work on the initiative called Keeping Children and Families Safe Act, which was signed by President Bush just this week, focusing on our children and their safety and their security. Earlier this year, in March, we passed the ban on partial-birth abortion, a procedure that is unnecessary and offends the sensibilities of the American people. The following month we passed the President's faith-based initiative--not the whole initiative, but an important aspect of it, through a bill called the CARE Act. The same month we passed AMBER Alert. Some are listed here on the chart, including partial-birth abortion ban, faith-based initiative, AMBER Alert, which we have all seen on television and heard on radio where the names actually come forth, where we have a national alert in the event some tragedy has occurred. Last week the child care conference report was passed. Millions of lives of Americans and future citizens will be protected by each of these initiatives passed. They all passed on the floor of the Senate, demonstrating our deep commitment and compassion for our most vulnerable citizens. Internationally--and I have some of these under security--again, I will not go through each one. While all of this has been going on, we have funded Operation Iraqi Freedom. Who will ever forget that morning watching the Iraqi people pull down that statue of Saddam Hussein? The United States, this body, will continue to aggressively support the war on terror. We will continue that financial commitment, whatever it takes, and that moral commitment to the war until America's enemies are defeated. Internationally, also globally, we passed the Moscow Treaty, the NATO expansion. When you look at Bulgaria and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, we see democracy in action, where 15 or 20 years ago people would have said ``impossible.'' So the very freedoms we are fighting for, whether it is in Iraq or this ongoing war of terror, they are embodied in what we have voted on in this Senate--expansion of NATO to include these new democracies. We also passed the Microenterprise Assistance Program, which will help impoverished citizens build and grow small businesses, so people who may not have access to capital are given some assistance, which, combined with their own entrepreneurial spirit, can grow and they can have that opportunity to take part in a growing economy. This economic tool is especially powerful for impoverished women in developing countries all over the world. I spend some time every year going to Africa and in a few months I will be going with a Senate delegation to South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Last January, I was in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and the Sudan. You see the importance of these what are called microenterprise grants, giving people that opportunity to grow economically, help their family return to dignity and opportunity that they simply don't otherwise have. I listed here a series called values. I mentioned most of these. But the Burmese Freedom Act is an issue that is ongoing in a part of the world where we see the civil liberties we take for granted being stripped away. When you say freedom in this country, you think of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. But the Burmese Freedom Act is necessary because in that part of the world--particularly right now--those freedoms don't exist. Again, this was an important response on behalf of the Senator from Kentucky and others to bring attention to the human rights abuses that are being put forth and committed by the Burmese government against its citizens. So the Senate, by working together, has accomplished a lot, with a lot of hard work and cooperation. I once again thank my colleagues for their efforts. We are doing all this, and I put ``action'' up here on the chart, and the goals that we have met because day to day we are focusing on each of these and we rarely have the opportunity to go back. The importance is on ``action.'' This is occurring now in this first 6 months, but it occurred compared to the last Congress, when we never passed a budget. In the last Congress, we didn't pass 11 out of 13 appropriations bills. In the last Congress, we did not pass Medicare. So it is the action, and the solution is fulfilling the agenda that we put forth. That is what the American people expect. We have made the legislative process work. The one area that I believe continues to undermine the effectiveness of the Senate is the obstructionism towards the President's circuit court nominees, the judicial nominees. This is unprecedented in our 200-year history, the tactics to endlessly delay the process and prevent the Senate from performing its constitutional responsibility to vote on the President's judicial nominees. That is inconsistent with the Constitution. Our responsibility is to advise and consent. Yet we are being denied a simple up-or-down vote, allowing people to vote how they wish, but allowing them to express advice and consent by voting which is, in the end, the only way we can express that advice and consent. The Senate has few constitutional responsibilities as important as exercising that advice and consent on the President's judicial nominees. I am determined to press forward in the next weeks to carry out a fair and orderly Senate process and return to the norms of the last 200 years, where Senators are given that opportunity for an up-or-down vote. Looking ahead, July will be a busy month. I do want my colleagues to know--and we had some discussion with the Senator from West Virginia last night in terms of making sure we have good productive Fridays--I can assure my colleagues that in July, in large part because we will be addressing the appropriations bills very aggressively during that month, we will be working 5 days a week, and it is likely that votes will continue late in the day on Fridays, at least later than usual on Fridays. During July, in addition to the appropriations bills, we will complete action on the Energy bill, which we all know is critical to generating an affordable, reliable energy supply. I know we will be aggressive in passing these appropriations bills for the Cabinet agencies. Early on, I expect to see the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, Labor and Health and Human Services, and, at the same time, I want to address one other issue in July--and this is an ambitious schedule--but I do believe strongly, and I say this in part as a physician, yes--that we have an obligation to diminish--I would like to say eliminate--the frivolous medical liability lawsuits that are being applied today. That needs to be the goal: to get rid of the frivolous lawsuits because they unnecessarily drive up the cost of health care, and if you unnecessarily drive up the cost of health care, you end up driving people to the ranks of the uninsured. We will address that issue during the month of July, as well as issues surrounding genetic discrimination, an issue that has already been addressed in committee and is ready to come to the floor. This is an impressive list, I think. It is one I am confident we will be able to handle in a systematic and productive way, always keeping in mind that goal of moving America forward and that we are working for the American people. They send us here to get results, not unnecessary legislation, but get results to the problems and challenges they face. If we look at the list, I think we are on the right track. We have accomplished a lot. We have had a number of successes. We have seen results. We are delivering to the American people in strong, effective legislation, and I have every expectation that we will continue building on this record of success in the weeks and months to come. To my colleagues, I do wish them all a happy Fourth of July. I hope they will travel safely. I extend my best wishes to them and their families. Mr. President, in a few minutes I will be back with another statement, and then we will have some closing business over the course of the day. For now, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just about 30 minutes ago I sat down and wanted to review a little bit about the last 6 months. As I did that and came to the floor and cited some of the legislation we have done, I so much appreciate the comments of the Senator from New Mexico because they fit with the hope which I translate into maybe additional dreams and hopes, but reality. I have been blessed to be in this body for the last 8 years, but prior to that, 20 years in the scientific field and spending hours and nights in laboratories thinking and trying to hypothesize about what would occur 6 months later; or why a capillary muscle relaxed in a way based on the metabolic environment and doing my best to figure it out and doing the experiments; but then 6 months later because of the work of other people in maybe unrelated fields, having that hypothesis changed and productivity to increase to the point that my idea was solved--not the way I wanted to, but because of investment with science. I would run over from the laboratory to the clinical arena and work in a health care system that was beautiful, which was delivering the very best quality of care but looking at it through really a Medicare system at the time that was so rigid and inflexible because of the 130,000 pages of regulations from HCFA--the Health Care Financing Administration--which had evolved over a period of 30 years with good intentions but which so micromanaged and so straitjacketed the physicians, the scientists, the researchers, the patients, governing the doctor-patient interaction--130,000 pages of governing which meant you could not capture whether it is the nanotechnology or the 3 billion bits of information out of the human genome project today, with the micromanaging that the Senator was talking about--that can't be assimilated into the system of health care delivery at a rate which the American people deserve. I mention that because as I was going through this legislation, I was thinking of AIDS/HIV, a huge problem with 23 million people dead and 40 million people infected, and there is no cure. Another 60 million people will die. Thus, we need to encourage that innovation, invent that vaccine, engage in that science. Right now we don't know what the hypothesis is. But it is there, and we are going to see it in our lifetime, because in part, just as the Senator from New Mexico led the support in the human genome at the time, at the time nobody really knew what was going to happen, he was out here 15 years ago leading on the human genome project, for a shorter period of time we had that phone book of 3 billion bits of information which is there. It is the phone book, as he said. Now it can be applied. I mention that because 12 hours ago on this floor we passed a piece of legislation that delivers prescription drugs in an unprecedented way for the first time in the history of the Medicare program. We are helping seniors with prescription drugs. But at the same time it modernizes Medicare to get rid of the unnecessary bureaucracy, the redtape, the straitjacket, the micromanagement, building in the flexibility where those new ideas, the dynamism from the marketplace, the innovation in the marketplace can be assimilated and speed up the process where we can address this huge unfunded liability which we know occurs in Medicare today because of what our seniors deserve. But we have a doubling of the number of seniors. At the same time we offer the prescription drug package, we modernize Medicare in such a way that it is flexible. These new ideas will be incorporated in a rapid fashion. Heart transplantation. At the time I first started heart transplants, it was very rare. Lung transplants had never been done successfully. I am not that old. But I had the opportunity to be involved in heart transplants. It took about 5 years after I was doing them routinely in the private sector for Medicare to allow any reimbursement for our seniors--5 years because of bureaucrats. It is the way Government works. It takes a long time. That is just one procedure. The optimism which the Senator talked about, I think so realistically and eloquently, is there. There is no question. When we talk about 14 years out trying to predict essentially a static system moving ahead, and it is not going to happen--the advances in technology are just like that. The half-life of science has gone from 10 to 7 to probably 4 years now, and it is going to be down to 2 years. It is the same way with the health care delivery systems, and the old fee-for-service. My dad practiced medicine for 55 years. As the Senator was talking about the genetic testing that is going to be available, the appropriate response and how we are going to be able to develop cures, I was sitting there thinking of my dad with his black bag in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He didn't have any medicines. He had none. He had antibiotics after 1945, but none before that. But the revolution I have seen when I was doing heart transplants and lifting people's hearts out and putting them in was made possible because of one drug--cyclosporine. If the pharmaceutical companies had not invested to get that drug, we would not have been able to do heart and lung transplants. The advances we went through in that 20 or 25 years--and now I see because of the work like the human genome projects and nanotechnology-- that combination--once we allow that to marry with our health care and government-sponsored programs, the sky is the limit. Productivity will increase. The advances can be assimilated. We will be able to think more in terms of, yes, longevity, but also quality of life. It does come down to hope. I very much appreciate the Senator articulating the big vision, because every day we are here, in the back of my mind I am thinking the same thing. Prescription drugs are important, but at the same time to develop a system that can capture that technology and at the same time look at HIV/AIDS and make sure there is a vaccine bill, and that we keep trying. We are all trying to get it through. But right now, because of the medical liability issues which we are going to address in July, when you have predatory trial lawyers--not all are predatory--who are really going to come in and say that vaccine has certain side effects, there is going to be a lawsuit, and there will be a lot of frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of health care and drive people to the ranks of the uninsured. One last issue which I didn't mention earlier but which we addressed on the floor goes into this--medical safety in the hospital. The Institute of Medicine report said there are 100,000 people who die every year because of medical errors in the hospital. Most of that is cross-reaction from drugs and the like. The best way to approach that is to have information voluntarily shared by physicians and by nurses to learn in an ongoing, continuous quality management program and to have that information available, which is correct, and which is self-correcting. But if you have predatory trial lawyers all the way around, and you have incentives not to share that information, we are never going to make this system better. So it all fits together: the science, the technology, the framework which the Senator explained so well. What we are doing in Medicare, the access to prescription drugs, global HIV/AIDS--you put all that together. If we keep moving things, as we have in the last, I would say, 6 months, I am absolutely--absolutely--convinced we are going to be able to capture those hopes. In many ways, people say: You're dreaming. You describe them as hopes. Having seen science and technology in my own life, they may have started as dreams, and they may be hopes now, but in our lifetimes they are going to be reality.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let me just reply and say: Last Friday, you and I were on the floor at 3 in the afternoon. Just because we are not voting doesn't mean we are not working. Some of us do have constituents we go back to and spend time with. Some of us are working on bills and reading. Just because we are not voting does not mean we are not working.

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

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I suggest that, since we have our colleagues here and ready to work, we go back to work now. I think the Senator made his point. I am listening and I will heed that advice and counsel. I suggest we go back to work so we can get home tonight to our families as well. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. Yes.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of Senators, we have made tremendous progress today, and we are on the final leg. In conversations with the managers, it appears we will have one more series of stacked votes tonight and that will include final passage. That series will be it. The bill will be done. We need somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour--hopefully 45 minutes, and hopefully people can yield back their time--before we can begin those votes. I think that is all we can say at this juncture, working in good faith. There are a lot of details. We are waiting for some of the final wording to come through in terms of the managers' package. Once we have that, we will be able to proceed with the voting. I don't know how many amendments it will be. It could be two amendments; it could be four amendments; it could be one amendment or passage. But it is going to be probably two or four amendments beginning in about 45 minutes to an hour.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, a few moments ago we were made aware that at 9:45 tonight a close friend, a confidant, a colleague to most of us in this body, Strom Thurmond, passed away. It was a century ago when Mark Twain was alive and Teddy Roosevelt was President that James Strom Thurmond was born in South Carolina and at that time began a life unmatched in public service. Just about all of us in this body have had the real privilege of serving alongside Strom Thurmond. A long-time friend of Senator Thurmond, Hortense Woodson, once said of him: Everything he's done has been done in the full. There's no halfway doings about Strom. Indeed, Strom Thurmond will forever be a symbol of what one person can accomplish when they live life, as we all know he did, to the fullest. To his family and his friends, we offer our sincerest sympathies. It was unexpected that he would die this evening while we are in the middle of completing a very historic bill, and it would be clearly appropriate for us to make recognition of his passing for a moment now, with plans, either after completion of the bill tonight or tomorrow, for people to make more extended statements. Again, we extend to his family our deepest sympathies and our continued prayers.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I believe in assuring the ability of seniors who choose to do so to add their own funds on top of the government contribution in order to participate in private fee-for- service plans under Medicare. I also believe that private fee-for- service plans should be able to provide an unmanaged form of the subsidized prescription drug benefit. Accordingly, I am committed to ensuring that the bill reported from the conference committee that will consider S. 1 and H.R. 1 incorporates the functional equivalent of those provisions in H.R. 1 that permit private fee-for-service plans to provide the subsidized prescription drug benefit as an unmanaged benefit whose premium amount, just like the premium amount such plans charge for the core Medicare benefit under current law, is not subject to governmental review or approval.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for years Congress has debated providing prescription drug coverage to seniors and how to strengthen and improve the Medicare Program. Tonight we have acted. Tonight America is one step closer to being a more caring society for millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities. Tonight seniors and individuals with disabilities, through this bill, will get relief from high prescription drug costs and outdated, often inadequate medical care. Tonight we are one step closer to providing real health care security to seniors all across the Nation. We stand on the shoulders of many in this body and in the House of Representatives who have labored mightily to improve the Medicare Program. We have reached this point of success because of the commitment of the leadership in the House as well as the Senate. Above all, we are indebted to the bold leadership of the President of the United States without whom we would not be transforming or improving the system. Indeed, the bill we have just passed is nothing less than historic. By dramatically expanding opportunities for private sector innovation, it offers genuine reform that will dramatically improve the quality of health care for all seniors. At the same time, the legislation preserves traditional Medicare so that those who wish can remain in traditional Medicare and keep exactly what they have today. This bill combines the best of the public and private sectors and positions Medicare to evolve with the medical treatments of the future. It is entirely voluntary. I am very pleased by the overwhelming majority of this body who tonight voted to move this legislation towards a more competitive private model but a partnership between the public and private sector. I am also pleased that the amendment maintained the balance that has been so important in what I set out a few weeks ago, to be a truly bipartisan effort. The bill devotes increased resources and expands opportunities within the traditional Medicare Program for chronic care coordination, for disease management, for preventive care. As many people have stated, it is not a perfect bill, but we will continue to move this legislation forward now to conference once, later in the evening or in the hours of the morning, after the House passes its legislation, we will have the opportunity to make the private sector provisions more flexible, indeed more competitive, and more like the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan. All of us in this body are familiar with the impressive record of that plan, the Federal employees plan. Every Member of Congress and over 8 million other Federal workers and retirees enjoy the ability to choose the plan that best suits their medical needs. Indeed, as we go through conference and once the bill is signed by the President of the United States, all seniors will have that same opportunity to voluntarily choose the plan that best meets their medical needs. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to improve this legislation and to make sure that it does not inadvertently displace good private health care coverage that exists today--options that are available to millions of Medicare beneficiaries, including employer-sponsored health coverage. Compromise and debate are the cornerstone of this great democratic system of government. I commend my colleagues for their admirable show of bipartisan spirit. Thanks to the leadership of our colleagues in the Senate and the commitment of President Bush, America's seniors will finally receive the health coverage they need and the security they deserve. I want to take a brief moment to thank all of my colleagues for their hard work and dedication over the last several weeks. It has been about 3 months ago that I set out that we would address Medicare for these 2 weeks--the 2 weeks prior to the July 4 recess. Many people said we were trying to do too much in too short a period of time. Others said it is something that has been debated for weeks and months, and indeed years, and there is no way we can finish it before July 4. Yet through the hard work of our colleagues--again, on both sides of the aisle--we have fulfilled that vision. Again, it is a first step, a step that will be improved in that conference before us. Nevertheless, we succeeded in what we set out to do with the legislation that is built upon the work of many Members of the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives and, in particular, the members of the Senate Finance Committee. I do want to thank especially Senators Hatch, Nickles, Lott, Snowe, Kyl, Thomas, Santorum, Smith, Bunning, and Breaux for their hard work and leadership. In particular, of course, I thank Chairman Grassley and Senator Baucus, the managers, who for the last 2 weeks have so capably managed the bill on the floor. Their cooperation and their leadership has been invaluable. Without it, we would not be here so close to the finish line. I would like to recognize all of the staff who have contributed to this effort: First, I would like to thank my chief of staff, Lee Rawls: my policy director, Eric Ueland; and my health policy director, Dean Rosen. Paul Jacobson, Bob Stevenson, Nick Smith, Bill Hoagland, and Amy Holmes of my Leadership office also made important contributions. I also would like to recognize the other members of my health team who worked so hard to help make possible the passage of this legislation: Elizabeth Scanlon, Craig Burton, Susan Goelzer, Shana Christrup, Allison Winnike, and Jennifer Romans. The Majority Whip's staff deserves special recognition, especially Kyle Simmons, Michael Solon, and Amy Swonger, for the long hours they put in and for the guidance they provided to our Finance Committee Chairman and our entire Republican leadership team. As I have said, passage of this legislation was made possible in the United States Senate because of the genuine spirit of bipartisan cooperation. Both the Republican and Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee worked incredibly hard, long hours these past several weeks and months. Their expertise, support, and stamina has been invaluable. I would like to thank Kolan Davis, Ted Totman, Linda Fishman, Colin Roskey, Leah Kegler, Mark Hayes, Jennifer Bell, and Alicia Ziemiecki of Chairman Grassley's staff. And I would also like to thank Jeffrey Forbes, Elizabeth Fowler, Bill Dauster, John Blum, Pat Bousilman, Kate Kirchgraber, and Andrea Cohen of Senator Baucus' staff for their contributions. Hazen Marshall, Stacey Hughes, and Megan Hauck of the Senate Budget Committee staff are also commended for their efforts. Thank you to you all. I look forward to working with Chairman Grassley and our colleagues in the House of Representatives to produce a conference report that can pass both Houses and be signed by the President in a timely manner later this year. Mr. President, I 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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination on today's executive calendar: Calendar No. 252, the nomination of Joshua Bolten to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I further ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the motion 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.