Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, tonight we debate and tomorrow we act on legislation that will help set a course for a stronger national economy in the coming months. Next month, we will begin to address issues in the health care sector. We will look at ways to strengthen and improve Medicare. We will also begin the appropriations process, funding education, training, and other critically important programs that make contributions to our future economic growth. These issues and others are fundamental to the overall objective of maintaining stable, sustained economic growth that creates jobs and opportunities for all our citizens. For today we must act on the conference agreement we worked so hard on throughout this week, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. This is legislation that justly deserves the expedited consideration it was given over the last month and the special procedures afforded it under the Budget Act. It is, simply put, must-do legislation. The good things we enjoy as Americans come, in large part, from the wealth of our vast human and natural resources. They come from a political and economic system that rewards hard work, rewards the entrepreneurial spirit, rewards personal initiative--all conducted within a framework of fair, just, and equitable laws of commerce. History is replete with governments that have failed because of failed economies. Our responsibility as elected officials to do whatever is necessary to maintain economic growth is real not only for today but for future generations. I am concerned about our economy not only because of its current sluggishness in creating jobs but also because of the new risk--the risk of disinflation. But you don't have to take my word. Recently, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep the target for the Federal funds rate at 1\1/ 4\ percent, the lowest level in nearly 40 years. But more importantly, the committee concluded that: The probability of an unwelcome substantial fall in inflation, though minor, exceeds that of a pickup in inflation from its already low level and the balance of risks . . . is weighted toward weakness over the foreseeable future. I hope my colleagues are listening. The Fed is raising the specter of both continued economic weakness and disinflation--something that we have not experienced in this country. While the economy continued to grow in the first quarter of this year, although at a lackluster rate, it was not sufficient to generate enough demand to encourage businesses and employers to create new jobs. The result is that the unemployment rate has risen to 6 percent. Now the Fed has added another concern. With insufficient growth, the economy lacks the momentum to stop inflation from falling further. I continue to meet with economists and business groups to better understand the policies and programs that best address weak economic growth and a jobless recovery. Most all agree that economies are like ships--they cannot be turned around quickly. But while this economy doesn't need to be turned around, it is headed in the right direction. It just needs to pick up its pace. Indeed, that is what the jobs and growth package is all about. In order to achieve growth sufficient to create jobs, to reduce unemployment, and to stem this potential disinflation phenomena, there must be a substantial injection of new demand into our economy, and it must be now. This is for the job security of the American people. We need to stoke the boilers on this ship. The tax bill before us represents an immediate opportunity to inject new demand in the economy, as much as $60 billion immediately. Of the $350 billion stimulus and growth provided in this conference agreement, 60 percent of that stimulus is provided this year and next. Equally as important, this stimulus translates directly into money in the pockets of American families. As an example, a married couple with two children and an income of $40,000 will see their taxes decline this year nearly 96 percent--from $1,978 to $45. The legislation provides for immediate and retroactive to the beginning of this year tax relief to millions of American families by increasing the tax credit for each child to $1,000 each year. The legislation accelerates all the tax rates we enacted 2 years ago, providing in total nearly $31 billion in tax relief this year, immediately. The legislation provides incentives for businesses by providing a 50-percent bonus depreciation for capital investments, up from 30 percent enacted last year--a powerful known stimulus to the economy. The legislation will increase expensing for small businesses from $25,000 today up to $100,000. As we all know, these small businesses are the real engines of job creation and economic growth. On the proposal to reduce taxes on dividends and capital gains, this, of course, has generated much discussion in this body and in the House of Representatives. While the Senate passed a different measure than what is in the underlying reconciliation tax bill, the compromise provides significant reduction in taxes on dividends immediately, a nearly 60-percent reduction, and makes reductions in capital gains tax rates to further stimulate investment and growth. Finally, the legislation does address aid to our fiscally strapped States by providing over $20 billion in direct fiscal relief immediately. It is clear that we must act, and we must act quickly if we are to ensure that the economy continues on a course of stronger growth and job creation. I ask my colleagues to join me in doing our job. The House has acted and now it is time for us to act. We must present to the President a strong job creation, anti-inflation economic growth bill. The American economy needs a boost. The American people need jobs, and that duty falls inescapably to us right here and now.

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

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 105, S. Con. Res. 7.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning there will be a period of morning business with the time equally divided between Senator Cornyn and the minority leader or his designee. Following morning business, the Senate will resume debate on the Department of Defense authorization bill. Two amendments are pending which relate to TRICARE. This morning, the chairman and the ranking member will be working on a time agreement as to when we may dispose of those pending amendments. Rollcall votes are, therefore, expected prior to the recess for the respective party luncheons. Other Members who intend to offer amendments to the Defense authorization bill are encouraged to notify the chairman and ranking member in order to schedule consideration of their amendments. Senators should expect rollcall votes on amendments throughout the day in order to make progress on this important bill. It is hoped that we can finish the bill either today or tomorrow. As a reminder, this week the Senate will consider the debt limit extension under a previous consent agreement. Finally, I would add it is hoped that final action on the jobs and economic growth package from conference will be voted on this week. In fact, I want to notify my colleagues that it is my intention, as soon as we receive that conference report, to bring it to the floor. An agreement is being reached between the two Houses on this conference report. I am very optimistic that we will be able to address that this week. We will have a very busy week with the Department of Defense authorization, the jobs and economic growth conference report that I just mentioned, the debt limit, and we are working to make progress on unemployment insurance which has to be addressed also this week. That expires on May 30. Thus, we are responsible for acting on that as well this week.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have a few opening comments I wanted to briefly mention on an issue we are going to be talking about and debating on the floor during the last 2 weeks of next month; that is, Medicare and prescription drugs. At this point, let me make those comments, and then we will proceed with the schedule as planned. It was in 1963 that President John F. Kennedy said, when leading the fight to enact Medicare at that time: A proud and resourceful nation can no longer ask its people to live in constant fear of a serious illness for which adequate funds are not available. These are the words I want to stress. He said: We owe the right of dignity in sickness, as well as in health. Protecting the health of our Nation's seniors was the right thing to do in the early 1960s, and it is the right thing for us to do now. Back in 1965, Medicare was designed for the way medicine was practiced at that point in time, and that was to treat acute or episodic illnesses that would bring people to the hospitals. It was not designed at that time, nor could it be designed at that time, to keep up with the dazzling innovations, the creativity, and the dynamic discoveries that were being made almost on a daily basis. These great advances have and will continue to transform medicine. We have a structure with Medicare that simply is not flexible enough or adaptable enough to assimilate or capture those great discoveries that are being made. That leads us to unacceptable gaps in coverage. One of those gaps has become apparent to us all, whether we are seniors or individuals with disabilities, or those of us in the political arena listening very carefully to our constituents. That is the gap for prescription drugs. What seniors deserve is health care security. Unlike in the 1960s when it was designed--there haven't been that many changes, really, since the 1960s--today that health care security does involve good preventive care, access to affordable prescription drug protection from those unexpected catastrophic costs which can reach astronomical levels, and access to the modern technology that I mentioned before. Since it doesn't include all of those things, it has not given the security I and I believe all of us believe seniors deserve. If you look at certain technologies such as preventive tests for breast cancer and prostate cancer, it literally required an act of Congress before they could be covered by Medicare. We in Congress simply cannot respond, with all of the other responsibilities, to each and every innovation that comes through. We simply can't do it. More basic care, such as cholesterol screening in my own field of heart-lung cardiology--you all know the importance of cholesterol--is not covered today. In the end, it creates lapses in a very good system. Medicare is a very good system, but it is simply not a system that is up to date with the quality of care that we could give our seniors today. I would say that we do have an obligation--I would call it a moral obligation--to ensure that Medicare does provide the highest quality of care to our seniors that we are able to provide and which I believe we can provide. The Senate Finance Committee has been working for the past several months to develop such a plan. We are building on the work of a lot of past bipartisan efforts in this body: the Breaux-Frist plan, the House- passed legislation, the Senate tripartisan plan of the last Congress, and the President's framework for reform. In early June, the Finance Committee will be addressing this matter under the leadership of Senator Grassley, working with Senator Baucus, and we will take this proposal to the floor, as amended through committee, sometime in those last 2 weeks of June. It is my hope and it is my intention to vote on final passage of such legislation before we adjourn for the July 4 Independence Day recess. Once passed, we will begin to provide that prescription drug coverage for seniors and improve that system for health care security for our seniors. I do think we need to address this issue in a bipartisan way. This is a big bill. It is a big expansion of Medicare. It is going to take people on both sides of the aisle to address this important goal of protecting the health of our seniors. I mention all this only because it is so big and so large that I encourage my colleagues to start studying and restudying the issue, even though we have a very busy week now, and then we have our recess during which we will be with our constituents back at home, and then we will come back to an energy bill, and then Medicare. I want people to start preparing for that right now because it is such a large challenge before us. Our Nation's seniors are depending on us to do the right thing for them. With the appropriate planning, with the appropriate discussions, again, in a bipartisan way, we will be able to deliver on that promise.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. This afternoon, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 2:30 p.m. At 2:30 the Senate will begin consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill. Under the order, amendments will not be in order to the bill until 5:30 today. Under the previous order, our first rollcall vote is scheduled for 5:30 this afternoon, but due to a number of meetings, I ask unanimous consent that the vote on the confirmation of the nomination of S. Maurice Hicks, Jr., to be a United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana be moved until 5 p.m. today.

Mr. FRIST. My remarks are going to be for 3 minutes; if I could have Senator Hagel go first and then follow with----

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the assistant minority leader. I am hopeful we can pare down the number of amendments, but I understand from their perspective it will take more than a couple of hours. In that regard, the exact timing will be discussed as to when we actually bring that to the floor. It will be completed this week. In a few moments I will talk about bioshield, as well, that I would like to complete this week. But absolutely for sure, DOD we are looking to complete, we will address the debt ceiling this week--we have to address it this week--and we will address, hopefully, the jobs and economic growth package in its final form as well as bioshield. Putting that together will be, again, a very long week. People absolutely must plan to be here on Friday, voting on Friday before we begin the recess.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am happy to extend it for 15 minutes. I have very few remarks to make, and then we will have the Senator go first.

Mr. FRIST. Let me clarify, or add to that, because we are moving the time up. I understand a lot of people will be coming back this afternoon. Since we initially scheduled it for 5:30, we will extend that voting to, say, 6 p.m. So we will begin voting at 5 p.m. today, and the vote will be held open until 6 p.m. today since this is a change from Friday. Following that vote, Members may offer amendments to the DOD authorization bill. The two managers will be encouraging any Senator who intends to offer an amendment to stay around after the vote to offer and debate their amendment. Any votes ordered on amendments that are debated this evening will be postponed to begin tomorrow morning. It is my hope that we will be able to complete Senate action on this bill early this week. This week, the Senate will also consider the debt limit extension legislation. We have an agreement for a limitation of amendments to that bill, although it is still my hope that the list of amendments can be pared down and we can pass that bill in a quick period of time. Finally, I add that last week the Senate passed the jobs and economic growth package. At this point, it is unclear at what time the Houses can complete working out the differences. It is my hope to complete that prior to the Memorial Day recess. People have been meeting over the weekend, today, and will be meeting tonight. I will keep my colleagues posted. My intent is to complete that package before the Memorial Day recess. The language has to be worked out between both Houses. We will be talking about that as we go forward.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I am going to make just a few comments on bioshield and then will yield to the Senator from Nebraska. The comments I want to make are really a continuation of the statement of my intentions of a few minutes ago, and that is that the bioshield legislation must be addressed as soon as possible. I believe it has ramifications for the security of this Nation. Today, Israel was rocked by a fifth suicide bombing in 4 days--5 dead, 14 or 15 injured in a blast outside a shopping mall. Just last Friday we had a suicide attack in Morocco claiming 42 lives. In Saudi Arabia last week: 3 simultaneous attacks, 34 people murdered including 7 Americans. Meanwhile, 15 European tourists are being held hostage in a bunker in Algeria. This weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix warns that: Chemical and biological weapons might be within the reach of terrorists--whether these are groups or individuals. He goes on to say: Full guarantees against research and development are hardly attainable, and possible hidden stores of biological and chemical weapons may also be very hard to discover. The threat is real. Biological and other dangerous agents every day get closer and closer and closer to being within the grasp of those who wish to do us or peoples around the world mortal harm. We have made tremendous progress in treating many serious naturally occurring diseases, but we still lag far behind where we should be in developing the medical treatments and responses against biological or potential biological and chemical attacks. President Bush, in his State of the Union Message, proposed Project Bioshield, which is a comprehensive effort to develop and make available modern, up-to-date, effective countermeasures against such biological and chemical agents. It is a major cooperative effort which will be a joint activity of the new Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. We look, in this legislation, at the next generation of countermeasures. Over the next 10 years, the administration estimates that about $6 billion will be available to purchase new countermeasures for conditions and illnesses and microbes like smallpox or anthrax or botulinum toxin or Ebola or plague. Project Bioshield also expands research and development into medical treatments as well as making these promising treatments available, very quickly, rapidly, in response to an emergency. My colleague, the Senator from New Hampshire, Mr. Gregg, introduced a comprehensive measure which incorporated the President's bioshield initiative into S. 15, the Biodefense Improvement and Treatment for America Act. That bill was introduced on March 11. Portions of that legislation incorporating the President's bioshield initiative passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on March 25. A slightly modified version passed the committee with the support of the ranking Democrat member, Senator Kennedy, as well as the support of all Republicans and all Democrats on the committee. The bill was placed on the Senate calendar on March 25, but now it is 2 months later and despite repeated attempts to pass the legislation, the minority, the Democrats, have objected to passing the bill by unanimous consent or even to debating the bill under a time agreement. We simply cannot continue to wait. Every day we wait is a day too long. We cannot forget the terrible video footage of the potential of these terrorist agents being used against us or other people. I hope the Senate will be able to meet Democratic objections and move this legislation this week before the Memorial Day recess. As I said in my opening comments earlier, none of us here doubts the potential danger that is out there. We need bioshield passed, and we need it passed as soon as possible. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will be speaking for about 10 minutes or so. The Senator from Illinois and I were just discussing all of us who want to speak on, and that we, the Senator from Illinois and the Senator from Massachusetts, from whom we just heard, have worked so hard on this effort. I think what I will do is get my opening statement out of the way, and then we will come back to the bill a little later today. I will yield a minute or so to the Senator from Illinois, if he would like to make a comment. I know we are a little constrained for time. We are going back to the growth bill in about 9 minutes.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed, as under the order, to the consideration of H.R. 1298, until the hour of 2 p.m. today.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, the first speaker on the global HIV/AIDS bill will be the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Lugar, who has done yeoman's work in getting us to this point.

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, we have just finished our eleventh rollcall vote in a row, and that is substantial progress. We have been here since 9:15 this morning, and our goal was to address each of the amendments in a systematic way. I commend the Chair for addressing these amendments in a timely fashion. However, we still have a large number of amendments to dispose of. At this time, we are giving Senators a chance to catch their breath to go back to their offices, not for a long time but about 47 minutes, and maybe even grab a bite to eat. We will resume voting right at 2. Although we will not be voting over the next 45 minutes or so, it is my hope we will be able to proceed, which we will, to some opening statements on the bill that will follow completion of the jobs and growth package, and that is the global HIV/AIDS bill, which we will be bringing to the floor. In order to complete the jobs and growth bill and the global HIV/AIDS bill, we are going to take advantage of this 45 minutes to make some introductory comments about the global AIDS package. When the Senate resumes the jobs bill, we will automatically begin the voting sequence. The first vote in the series at 2 p.m. will be the normal 15 minutes. Following the first vote, the remaining votes will be 10 minutes. I say again that the voting limit will be strictly enforced to allow us to finish our business as early as possible today.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I respond by saying I am scared to death to ask the other side how many amendments we actually have. We heard from the Democratic leader that there are four amendments that will likely require rollcall votes. From our side of the aisle, we have no amendments. We made it very clear what our strategy is, and that is to defeat the amendments. Why? Because it is the clearest way to help the hundreds of thousands of people who we know will benefit if we pass this bill tonight and get it to the G-8 so that the President can use it appropriately.

Mr. FRIST. I agree with the Senator from New Jersey about the critical importance of research on microbicides, and I commend him for his leadership on this important issue. I applaud his efforts to better coordinate research conducted at USAID, CDC, and NIH, and to increase Federal funding. I urge the leadership at NIH to five his proposal prompt and careful consideration.

Mr. FRIST. That's right, we will not be in session later today. We will return for business on Monday. On Monday, the Senate will begin consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill. The next rollcall vote will occur at 5:30 on Monday. Again, this will be the last rollcall vote of the morning.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1054 be placed back on the calendar.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we have had tremendous progress. It has been a long day. Most of us have been actually here on the floor for almost 11 hours. We have made great progress. We have completed 25 votes. Yet in conversations with the assistant Democratic leader, it is very clear we have a number of other amendments that people have expressed an interest in. We have dealt with most of the major amendments that have been discussed over today and yesterday and the day before. I know there are a number of other amendments people would like to talk about, would like to vote on, but I encourage Senators, due to the late hour, that we try to get that list as small as possible, and that Members talk to the chairman and ranking member and condense that list as narrowly as possible. So our colleagues will know, as I said 2 days ago, and as I said yesterday, and as I said today, we are going to finish this bill tonight, and we are going to go to the global HIV/AIDS bill with the intention of completing that tonight. And that means if it is 10 o'clock, if it is 11 o'clock, if it is 12 o'clock, if it is 1 o'clock, we will be having rollcall votes. Thus, I encourage everybody to focus, to use common sense, to be reasonable in terms of the amendments they put on the floor at this juncture. But I repeat, we will continue having rollcall votes until we finish the jobs and growth bill, as well as the global HIV/AIDS bill, tonight.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19, the Senate proceed to executive session and a vote on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 172, S. Maurice Hicks, Jr., to be a United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana. I further ask unanimous consent that following that vote, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then return to legislative session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 10 minutes equally divided in the usual form in relation to the Durbin global fund amendment; further, that following the debate, the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the amendment, with no amendment in order prior to the vote. Finally, I ask that following that vote, the Senate proceed to the final amendments to the jobs bill, if available, and passage of the jobs and growth legislation. I will modify that to ask that there be 20 minutes equally divided in the usual form, with the remainder of the unanimous consent request as described.