Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 9:15 tonight the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the Levin amendment, No. 1111, to be followed by a vote in relation to the Hagel- Ensign amendment, No. 1026, with no second degrees in order to the amendments prior to the votes and with 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote. I further ask unanimous consent that prior to the vote Senator Ensign be recognized for up to 15 minutes and Senator Hagel, for up to 10 minutes, and the two managers be given up to 5 minutes each; further, that it be in order for the Hagel-Ensign amendment to be modified up to the beginning of the stacked votes.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we can do better, and I think we ought to do our best to try to do maybe 10 minutes on the last series. It is late at night. We have all been working about 12, 13 hours nonstop. It is an important bill. We set out this morning to finish tonight. People are here. They are ready to finish it. It is late. After talking to the managers and the leadership on both sides, there is a general consensus that we ought to push ahead, get this bill done for the American people. We can do it. Things have gone very well. We have had adequate time for debate and amendment. The distinguished Senator from West Virginia told me from day one: My advice to you as the majority leader is to make sure you give time for debate and amendment. He did forget to tell me that it is sometimes hard dealing back and forth as you are waiting for language to come, as you are trying to get the order for amendments in these last hours on a very complex bill, a bill that is as big as any bill we have passed this year and as complex, and it has taken a little bit more time. I would have liked to have finished at 9 o'clock tonight. I think at this juncture, if we proceed over the next 45 minutes--let's do those rollcall votes in 10 minutes--we will be out of here. People will be able to leave tomorrow or stay and come to the floor and talk. I think that is the general sense of where we should go.

Mr. FRIST. The Senator is happy to yield to the Senator from West Virginia.

Mr. FRIST. If the Senator will yield for a couple more minutes because we do have people who want to get on to the business. I certainly do yield for a few more minutes.

Mr. FRIST. Again, I suggest that we go back so we can work and debate and get these two or four amendments finished. I would be happy to talk to the Senator. I understand he wants us to be efficient and work 5 days a week. I would like to work 6 days a week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST. Why don't we take just a moment of silence in honor of Strom Thurmond. (Moment of Silence.)

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of this amendment, which is a product of about 48 hours of discussion and negotiation, in terms of packaging. I really speak in support of both of the parts of this amendment to which the managers have just spoken. In the next couple days--hopefully maybe tomorrow night or the next morning--we will indeed have a historic vote to provide America's seniors with coverage they simply don't have today, don't have access to today--prescription drugs, preventive care, and chronic disease management. That is in the underlying bill. Seniors will have the opportunity, for the first time, to choose the sort of coverage that best suits their individual needs. At the same time, they will have access to a benefit they don't have today, and that is in the underlying bill. I support the amendment just introduced because it makes the bill even better for two reasons. No. 1--and this is where about $6 billion is spent--it strengthens the competitive model. Ultimately, I believe--and I think the majority of people in this body believe--the only way we are going to be able to increase quality over the long term, in 10, 20, or 30 years, at the same time we have this unprecedented increase in the number of seniors in this country, a doubling in the number of seniors over the next 30 years, is to take advantage of the dynamism of the private sector where we can obtain the efficiencies that a command-and-control type plan, a Government-type plan simply cannot capture. It is the only way. Half of this amendment concentrates just on that--about $6 billion--to make those competitive, private sector dynamic, marketplace principles, yes, regulated by Government, work. The other half of the amendment, the other $6 billion, also does something which we stress in the underlying bill, but through this amendment we will spend an additional $6 billion in supporting and investing in what we call preventive medicine, chronic disease management, coordinated chronic disease management we know how to address, but we have insufficiently invested in to maximize the care, the health care security our seniors deserve. I will refer to a couple charts to explain why I am so excited about both aspects of this bill. I will first take the half of the bill that has to do with chronic disease management, and it links with what I prefaced in my remarks; that is, doubling the number of seniors. The challenge is going to be to sustain this long term; that is, Medicare long term. If we look at overall numbers of beneficiaries in Medicare today, we know there are about 40 million beneficiaries, and this chart shows the percentage of beneficiaries. As we look at the total amount of moneys being spent today by those beneficiaries, those patients, those seniors, those individuals with disabilities who are a part of Medicare, we find that 6 percent, or about 1 in 20, account for 50 percent of all the money that is expended in Medicare today. Since we know that health care is expensive, what we need to do, I believe, to make sure we get the best value for each health care dollar, each tax dollar that is paid to Government or that is paid for by the beneficiary, is to make sure this money is spent effectively and efficiently. How do we do that? We ought to spend a lot of time focusing on this 50 percent, which is really 1 out of every 20 people. So in this body of 100 people, there would be six--just these six desks around me-- accounting for 50 percent of all the expenditures. So why don't we figure out why these six people are so expensive? Who are these six people? In this next chart, I will show you who they are because once we identify them and give them the very best coordinated care possible, I believe that number will reduce over time. On this next chart, these ``CCs'' stand for chronic conditions. By ``chronic condition,'' I mean heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or emphysema. What we find if we look at all Medicare expenditures--say this pie chart is all the money we spend on Medicare--most of the expenses are on individuals who have five chronic care conditions, and then those who have four chronic care conditions is about 13 percent; three chronic care conditions about 10 percent; two chronic conditions, say heart failure and diabetes, 7 percent. By concentrating on people with chronic conditions, and if we give them coordinated care, seamless care, if we give them prescription drugs, which this bill does for the first time, if we help them with maybe a nurse calling once a week to help manage their care, use resources appropriately, over the long haul, this program will be sustainable. I walked through these two charts because all of us know that Medicare is expensive, and we know that over time we need to fund whatever program we do, so let's concentrate our policy on where the expenses are, these six individuals, if we use this body as an example, and those are the people who have chronic care conditions. Thus, this amendment, $6 billion of $12 billion, is being spent, focused like a laser beam on people with chronic care conditions. That is what the amendment does. The underlying bill does that by setting up these PPOs, Medicare Advantage and Medicare+Choice, which gives seamless coordinated care built in a competitive marketplace. The underlying bill does that, but what this amendment does is focus an additional $6 billion on people with chronic conditions. Also, part of that money is to improve preventive care, and we all know it is a lot cheaper to figure out who is going to get sick from heart disease and treat them accordingly than waiting until they get sick and are hospitalized and they develop what is called end stage cardiomyopathy. To me it is exciting. I mentioned diabetes because diabetes is one of the conditions that I think best demonstrates how modern medicine today can, if properly managed, both have better outcome and lower cost. Today there are about 17 million Americans who suffer from diabetes. Another 16 million adults are at risk for developing the condition, and over the past decade, the number of diagnosed cases of diabetes has risen sharply. Just in the last several weeks, the American-Diabetes-Association- sponsored study indicated that one-third, one out of every three children born in the United States this year will develop diabetes in their lifetime--one out of every three. So if you are a parent and listening to me now, and you have three children, one of those statistically will develop diabetes over their lifetime. It is huge. The National Health Interview Survey projects that 45 to 50 million Americans will have diabetes by 2050. If we ineffectively manage diabetes, if we do not have access to the latest drugs, the appropriate management, the cost of managing and treating diabetes is huge. According to the American Diabetes Association, $91.9 billion was spent last year just in direct medical expenses for diabetics. Today, more than $1 in every $7 spent on health care in the United States is spent on behalf of diabetic patients. I mention all of this because we know that health care costs for diabetes, if not managed in a coordinated system, are huge, and based on the statistics I just said with this dramatic increase in diabetes will increase over time. How do we address it? We address it through an integrated health care model where you look at diet, you look at exercise, you look at drugs, you look at the appropriate testing to monitor blood sugars, and you have coordinated care. That is what we do in this Medicare PPO, Medicare Advantage model, and diabetes would fall into one of these chronic conditions. And we are going to be investing another $6 billion through this amendment in the overall management of conditions like diabetes. The other--and I will close in a minute or so--the other $6 billion of this amendment, the other half of this amendment, is invested in increasing the competitive model. I commented on this briefly, but what this allows us to do is to take advantage of what we know is in the marketplace today. We know that command and control and price controls run out of Washington, DC, do not work. We have tried it. We have seen it in Medicare in the past, and it resulted in a system that, yes, has been good for seniors, but it has not stayed abreast with the great advances we have seen in health care delivery or the new technology today. So we need a more responsive system, one that takes advantage of new innovation, new technology in the marketplace, that captures those dynamics of market- based competition. It is the private sector working in partnership with the public sector. I will close by saying that I feel strongly that this amendment will incrementally, greatly improve health care for our seniors today. It will be debated, I am sure, over the course of the evening tonight and early in the morning. It is a product of a lot of working together, Democrats and Republicans, over the last 48 hours to put together the very best ideas for improving competition and market-based fundamentals and, at the same time, focusing on preventive medicine, prevention of disease, management of those chronic conditions, where many of the challenges exist in Medicare today. We are nearing a historic vote to provide America's current and future seniors comprehensive health care coverage. Friday, we will pass legislation to improve and strengthen Medicare. The transformed program will offer modern and innovative coverage for procedures ranging from physical exams to hospital visits. And most significantly, the updated Medicare system will, for the first time, offer seniors prescription drug coverage. As a doctor who has served thousands of Medicare patients, I am committed to ensuring health care security for our seniors. Prescription drugs must be a part of that security. The bipartisan bill offers seniors more choice and flexibility. Seniors will be able to stay with traditional Medicare, or they will have the option of being covered under Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage will offer better benefits and up-to-date medical care, including: preventive care; disease management; and protection from catastrophic costs. It will also, of course, offer comprehensive prescription drug coverage. Seniors all across the country, including in rural areas, will have a Medicare plan that offers them similar types of benefits 8 million current and retired Federal employees now enjoy. Medicare Advantage is designed to combine the best of the Government and private sector and provide security, choice, quality, safety, flexibility and innovation. Chronic health problems especially will be tackled with more resources and better results. The amendment will significantly strengthen the bill in this regard. Most importantly, it allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services additional flexibility to institute a true competitive bidding model for PPOs and other Medicare Advantage coordinated health plans. It does this by allowing payments to plans without regard to a benchmark linked to current payments under the Medicare+Choice or Medicare FFS system. The second part of the amendment will devote up to $6 billion additional funds, beginning in 2009, for the Secretary to conduct broad demonstration projects that will likely lead to improvements in the disease management, chronic care management, and preventive care provided to seniors who choose to remain in the traditional Medicare program. This is great progress for seniors. We are modernizing Medicare to keep pace with modern medicine and tackle chronic disease. Diabetes is a good example of how modern medicine, through prescription drugs, is offering both therapeutic benefits today as part of an integrated care regimen and promises effective treatments and new types of health care delivery in the future. Approximately 17 million Americans--6% of the population--now suffer from diabetes. Another 16 million adults are at risk for developing the condition. Over the past decade, the number of diagnosed cases of diabetes has risen sharply. A recent American Diabetes Association sponsored study indicated that one third of children born in the United States in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetimes. The National Health Interview Survey projects that 45 to 50 million Americans will have diabetic by 2050. Undiagnosed and improperly treated, diabetes can cause a host of complications, including: kidney failure; heart disease; and loss of limb. Medical expenditures for persons with diabetes are four times as high as their nondiabetic counterparts, in large part, because of these complications. According to the American Diabetes Association, $91.9 billion dollars was spent last year just in direct medical expenses for diabetics. Today, more than one in every seven dollars spent on healthcare in the United States is spent on behalf of diabetic patients. Indeed, the healthcare costs for diabetes threaten to add a significant financial burden to Medicare. But the good news is there is much we can do to prevent the illness. We know that patient education, weight control, exercise and treatment can significantly reduce the incidence of adult onset diabetes. Meanwhile, since 1995, five new classes of medicine have been introduced to treat diabetes. These medicines, coupled with health management and coordinated care programs, are powerful tools to increase a patient's health status and reduce complications due to the illness. For example, one comprehensive disease management program treated approximately 7,000 diabetic patients and produced savings of $50 to $100 per diabetic patient, per month. Pharmaceutical costs increased under the program, but total health care spending declined. Why? Because of fewer emergency room visits, substantially fewer inpatient hospitalizations and reduced lengths of stay. At the same time, (HEDIS) measures of the quality of care these patients received significantly improved. In other words, a modern, coordinated health approach to diabetes which included prescription drugs, led to reduced costs and improved outcomes. And diabetes is only one of many chronic conditions for which prescription drugs help clinicians optimize care and improve the quality of life for patients. This amendment will go far in advancing life saving prescription drug approaches. This is an exciting week for the Senate and for the American people. We have built on years of research, discussion, and debate. We now have a bill that reflects broad bipartisan support. Thanks to the leadership of my 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. Medicine has come a long way since 1965. Now, so too, will Medicare. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the Senate will immediately resume consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits and Medicare bill. There are approximately 33 pending amendments from last week and yesterday. We continue to make good progress. Under the order from last night, we have two consecutive votes this morning at 11 o'clock on the Rockefeller amendment No. 976 and the Bingaman amendment No. 984. Also, last night we reached an agreement to vote at 2:25 this afternoon in relation to the Dodd amendment No. 969 on open enrollments. This morning, the two managers will be working through the pending amendments and will attempt to set up additional votes for this afternoon. I reiterate once again we will finish this bill this week, possibly Thursday night. It could be a very late Thursday night. I predict it will be a late night tonight, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night. If we spill over to Friday or even Saturday, we will finish this bill before the recess. I do encourage Members to come forward with their amendments as soon as possible and make those available to the managers if you plan on offering those amendments. We have a lot of work to do. The cooperation of Members will be very much appreciated over the next 2, 3 days.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I now ask for its second reading and object to further proceeding on this matter.

Mr. FRIST. I understand that S. 1323 is at the desk and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we made great progress toward finishing the prescription drug/Medicare reform legislation. We debated many amendments. We had nine rollcall votes in relation to the pending amendments during today's consideration of this bill. Tomorrow morning, we will resume consideration of S. 1. I would anticipate another busy day on this bill as well tomorrow. On Wednesday, the first rollcall vote was anticipated to be at 10 a.m. However, at this time the final legislative draft is not ready. We will continue to work on that draft over the course of the evening and into the morning, but at this juncture I will likely have to notify our Members as early as possible tomorrow morning as to whether we will actually call that rollcall vote at 10 a.m. I am hopeful that we can. If the legislative language is not ready, we will not have that vote at 10 a.m., but I hope to be able to announce that at 9:30 in the morning. I do want to remind my colleagues that at this juncture we have approximately 42 amendments still pending to the bill. These amendments will have to be addressed by the Senate in some fashion, although I am very hopeful that many of these amendments can be disposed of without a rollcall vote. In any event, we have a lot of work to do before we have passage of this bill. I, once again, will state that it is my intention that we will finish consideration of the prescription drug/Medicare reform bill prior to the July 4 recess--many hours, a lot of hard work, but we are on course to accomplish that, and I expect that we will do so. I look forward to another productive day tomorrow as we begin the final consideration of this bill.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 25. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then resume consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I thank the Chair. In brief response, through the Chair, I think it is a very accurate assessment of where we are. The managers continued to meet last night and will continue to meet this morning as we put together the various amendments. So I am very satisfied with the continued progress we are making and appreciate Members on both sides of the aisle coming forward with their amendments. With that, I think we will be able to stay on schedule, giving good, adequate time for debate and amendments. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, let me just make one final comment. In wrapup last night, we had two very important pieces of legislation pass through the body. We are debating throughout each day the prescription drug benefits and Medicare bill, yet we have other important matters. Last night, we passed S. 1157, which establishes a National Museum of African American History. Senator Brownback has been working on getting this bill cleared for full Senate action since its introduction on May 23 of this year. I publicly thank him for his efforts and attention on this important issue so that the Senate was able to pass it expeditiously. Also last night, the Senate passed S. 239, the Trauma Care Systems Planning And Development Act, which I introduced in January of this year. This bill directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to collect, compile, and disseminate information regarding trauma care and emergency medical services, and, in so doing, takes into special consideration people in rural areas who might not otherwise have access to that care. I mention those two very important pieces of legislation because I want our colleagues to be aware we did pass them late last night.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as we bring this very busy day to a close, I wish to reflect on where we are with this very historic bill that will provide prescription drugs and, at the same time, strengthen and improve Medicare for our seniors and individuals with disabilities. It is a historic week in many ways, but primarily because we will accomplish something that many thought would be impossible even a couple of months ago that will benefit America's seniors; historic because during this week, both Houses will likely pass the first major reform of Medicare in the almost 40 years of that program's existence. Thanks to the strong leadership of President Bush, as well as the bipartisan support of this body, I am optimistic that by the end of this week, we will have added a $400 billion prescription drug benefit for our deserving seniors for their health care security. And indeed, it has been a long time in coming. A lot of us have talked about it, have known we should move in that direction, and now after a lot of participation we will be able to deliver on that for which we have all worked so hard. Both parties have promised action in the past. America's seniors have demanded it. Indeed, America's seniors deserve it. As part of this current legislation, not a lot has been said on this particular aspect of it, so I do want to mention it. Within 8 months or 9 months after the President signs the final product of our discussions, when he signs this bill, seniors will have access to a prescription drug card that will provide immediate savings for them. This is an important interim move that allows us to say to seniors: Help is, indeed, on the way. During this period of time of a year and a half or a couple years while they have that prescription drug card, we will be constructing the appropriate infrastructure to provide that prescription drug benefit for that population that wishes to stay in traditional Medicare or that population that wishes to take advantage of a new, transformed type of Medicare that will allow continuous, ongoing quality care in a more seamless fashion, a fashion that will involve preventive medicine and chronic disease management, as well as prescription drugs. The great aspect about what we are doing, at the same time we are offering this new benefit of prescription drugs, which our seniors deserve, is that we are modernizing the Medicare Program, strengthening it, improving it in a way that can be sustained long term, and hopefully there will even be some cost savings in the future, but at the same time I am absolutely positively sure that the quality of care will be better. I say that because of this focus on preventive medicine, chronic disease management, and overall disease management which is simply not provided in traditional Medicare. I wish to list a couple of principles. First, individual choice versus a one-size-fits-all system. Seniors, for the first time, will be given an opportunity to choose the health care coverage which will best meet their individual needs. It is very different from the one-size-fits-all type program that is provided today. Second, private sector competition versus Government price setting. Private insurers--I mention private insurers and private plans because we hear a lot today from certain think tanks that not very much is new in this bill. There is not very much reform, there is not very much modernization. My simple response to them is, yes, there is a new entitlement in terms of this drug benefit, but it is going to be delivered 100 percent through the private sector, through private plans. Yes, regulated by Government, but the entities, the mechanisms of delivering these prescription drugs, whether it is in a freestanding plan or part of the traditional Medicare+Choice or part of a new PPO system, are 100 percent competitively bid with market-based principles. That allows us to step back and say: Yes, there is something new that over the long haul, if carried out well, if appropriately structured, will allow seniors to have better value, a higher quality of care for the same input, the same amount of money that is spent. So this market-based competition is important and, I would argue, is very important to the long-term sustainability of the program because of this huge demographic shift of the doubling of the number of seniors. Third, innovation versus bureaucratic delays. The participation of private health plans in Medicare will help ensure up-to-date coverage. Because Medicare is so rigid, it takes a long time for Medicare to incorporate innovation, new technology, new and better ways of doing things. When you have Government bureaucrats making the decisions or politicians or political figures deciding what is covered and what is not, it simply takes a longer time than occurs in the more responsive private sector. Four, long-term savings versus spiraling costs. There is a lot of debate in this Chamber, but I would argue, consistent with what the Medicare actuaries tell us, that the most efficient private plans today have the potential for beating Medicare costs by as much as 2.3 percent. Compounded over time, that can result in significant cost savings to the program. Thus, for the same input of dollars, you will have better output, better care delivered, and better quality of care. The final point I will close with is regulatory relief versus the redtape of bureaucracy that is so characteristic of our Medicare system today. In this bill, there are several rulemaking and regulatory relief changes for health care providers that will allow them to focus on what they should be doing; that is, providing that clinical care, that patient care, instead of filling out paperwork or spending a lot of time on redtape activity. A recent study by Price Waterhouse estimated that for every hour in the emergency room, there are about 30 minutes of paperwork required by emergency personnel. There is just no reason for that today, and this bill helps address that regulatory relief. So a new benefit, individual choice, market-based competition, rapid assimilation of new technology, as well as new medicines, long-term savings, relief from this red tape, health security for seniors, that is what this bill is all about. vote explanation

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today the Senate will immediately resume consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits bill. We currently have 15 pending amendments from last week. As I have stated, these amendments are being reviewed, and we will begin the process of scheduling votes, as necessary, on some of these amendments. As previously announced, we will have a vote at 5:30 this evening on an amendment to S. 1. We will alert all Members shortly as to which of those amendments that will be. The managers will be discussing that shortly. A number of Members have indicated they will be prepared to offer additional amendments during today's session. The two managers will be working with those Senators to set aside the pending amendments in order to consider further amendments over the course of the day. I am very pleased with what we accomplished last week, including last Friday, at which time we had a productive day in the offering and initial discussion of these amendments. As we previously said, we will plan on completing action on this bill this week before the recess. We will have full days and, I am sure, late nights with votes until we complete action on this bill. We will complete this historic legislation prior to adjourning for the July Fourth recess. I do encourage all Members to prepare themselves for what will be a very busy and productive week. I do thank all Members in advance for their assistance this week and in participating with the managers to bring this bill to closure.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for information of our colleagues, because we initially set a vote for 5:30 tonight, for clarification, we will not have any votes tonight. We will not be voting because the amendment was just withdrawn. That decision was just made in the last 15 minutes. I know a lot of people had planned the course of the day to be voting tonight. Right now, other amendments have been introduced in the last few hours, and suggestions have been made, well, let's go to those amendments. In truth, a lot of people are showing up right at 5:30. I am uncomfortable having Senators come in and all of a sudden voting on those amendments. I think the best thing, after talking to the managers, is not to have a vote tonight at this juncture but to have people continue to offer their amendments. We will continue the debate, and we will begin the orderly voting on amendments under the direction of the two managers tomorrow.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this resolution concerns a request for testimony in a criminal trespass action in the Concord District Court for the State of New Hampshire. In this action, a defendant has been charged with criminally trespassing on March 7, 2003, on the premises of Senator Gregg's concord office. The defendant refused repeated requests to leave Senator Gregg's office after it had closed for the night. The trial on this action is scheduled to be held on June 24, 2003. Pursuant to a subpoena issued on behalf of the State of New Hampshire, this resolution authorizes a staff member in Senator Gregg's office who witnessed the defendant's behavior concerning the relevant incident to testify in connection with this matter, with representation by the Senate legal counsel.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, on Monday the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1, the prescription drug benefits bill. Several Senators have indicated they will be available during Monday's session to offer amendments. As of now, we have 14 pending amendments that are being reviewed. On Monday, we will continue to process amendments and hopefully begin the scheduling of votes on those amendments that have been offered. Our next rollcall vote will begin at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Monday. I anticipate the vote will be in relation to an amendment to the prescription drug benefits bill. As always, we will notify Members once that vote is scheduled.